


Once Upon a December

by loupwarrior93



Series: As The World Falls Down [1]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: 2 years later, Angst with a Happy Ending, BR is a family, Both found family and lost family, Established Relationship, F/M, Galo has family, Galo is half Japanese, Galo is such a good boy, Headcanon gone mad, Hurt/Comfort, I promise, Lio supports his hurting boyfriend, M/M, Mentions of kidnapping, Mentions of psychological abuse, Post-Canon, Repressed Memories, Romance, background Meis/Gueira, lie by omission and gaslighting really, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24456952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loupwarrior93/pseuds/loupwarrior93
Summary: It’s almost 2 years since the Second World Burning took place and the World was saved from Kray Foresight by two gallant heroes. Now that Foresight is no more, our heroes and the rest of the World began to shift their focus on repairing what was once their peaceful lives.But Peace doesn’t always come with the calmness of the wind.Art by@NishiboysBeta'd by MissRomanticTragedy here on AO3.
Relationships: Gueira/Meis (Promare), Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos, OC/OC
Series: As The World Falls Down [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766419
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60
Collections: Promare Big Burn 2020





	1. Things I Almost Remember

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first completed series for any fandom really and I'm super happy that it's for the Promare Fandom. The idea was actually spawned for a few spit ball ideas that grew into something WAY too big in the Discord channels. So here it is! Enjoy! 
> 
> Art by [@Nishiboys](https://twitter.com/NishiuraBoys/status/1266964730389958661?s=19)
> 
> Beta'd by MissRomanticTragedy here on AO3.
> 
> Dedicated to the Burnish Settlement and Big Burn Settlement in Discord! I couldn't have done this with out y'all and thank you for listening to my endless headcanons on this. Also, yes I was much inspired by the Anastasia movie by Don Bluth and felt that the soundtrack was fitting for the titles.

_Dancing bears,_

_Painted wings,_

_Things I almost remember,_

_And a song someone sings,_

_Once upon a December._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Galo’s leg bounced quick and jittery against the hardwood floor of the empty office. 

When Galo had returned from the station’s latest call, Ignis immediately summoned him into his office. Nothing out of the ordinary, really; he didn’t think much of it until Remi threw him his black shirt and Ignis directed him to the seat in front of his desk, promptly leaving him alone in the office. It reminded Galo of school, when he got in trouble for fighting (against a bully who was picking on his friends!) and was sent to the principal’s office. That’s when the anxious paranoia crept in. 

Did he do something wrong? Did a civilian call to complain about some damaged property caused in a fire rescue and now the captain was going to scold him for it? Was somebody already complaining about his relationship with Lio in the workplace? He swears that he only kissed Lio in the empty bunkroom, and it was just _once_. All other forms of PDA and _*ahem*_ other affections were restricted to their apartment, much to Lio’s sullenness and Galo’s embarrassment. He was close to raking his hands through his hair in exasperation when the door clicked open. He turned his head to find Ignis and Remi walking back in, four people in tow behind them. Galo leapt to his feet when he noticed the uniforms these men wore. 

Most were police officers, and one officer was a high-ranking official judging by the impressive amount of ribbons on his chests and the stars on his shoulder boards; if nothing else, his strong facial features made the man look as though the position was tailored to him. The other high-ranking person Galo recognized as a familiar face, but Ignis spoke before Galo could place his name. “Galo, I’m sure you recognize our own Fire Commissioner Kinkade and Promepolis’s newly appointed Police Commissioner Reinhart.”

Commissioner Reinhart was the first to offer his hand to shake Galo’s. The warm smile that graced his well-worn features reminded Galo a bit of the one his late grandfather often gave him. “Good to meet you, son. I’ve heard nothing but praises from your chain of command and mine.” His thick voice held nothing but the truth as he spoke and that both warmed Galo to the core and soothed his anxiousness.

“Careful there, Frank. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re trying to steal my men from me again.” Commissioner Kinkade joked, his ginger features crinkling a bit before he too offered his hand. “But I must give credit where it’s due. You’ve been a tremendous asset in both the fire department and the city’s restoration projects, son. I hope to hear more good things about you.”

Now Galo knew his ears were turning red. “I’m just helping any way I can and I can’t take any of the credit really, sirs. That goes to my team and the rest of Burning Rescue.” He nervously smoothed the back of his neck. 

Remi chuckled as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “He’s usually not this humble. I can assure you, gentlemen.”

Galo let out a small affronted gasp, but quickly caught himself before he called Remi something else. “Geez, thanks,” he pouted. This broke the tense air in the room a bit, bringing a small chuckle from the group before Galo asked, “I don’t mean to sound rude Commissioner sirs, but why am I here?”

He could never tell exactly when Ignis’s mood shifted (damn sunglasses) but he didn’t have to see it when he felt the collective air in the office sink a bit. It didn’t help any when he saw Remi’s face and the commissioners’ faces shift to something grave. As though they were bracing themselves for something. 

“You need to sit down for this, Galo.” Ignis gently pressed, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Galo sank back down into his chair, the anxiety from earlier creeping back in. He watched as everyone else took a seat, Commissioner Reinhart with his two police officers standing behind him, Commissioner Kinkade to his left and Ignis at his desk with Remi standing to his right. 

Commissioner Reinhart was the first to start. “As you know, it’s been a year and change since Mr. Foresight nearly destroyed Promepolis and the world with his warped visions of grandeur and liberation.” Galo nodded to this as the police commissioner continued even though he was slightly struggling to follow his words. “And the city council has been in upheaval with the dismissal of its council members and city officials who allied with Mr. Foresight and his ideals, along with finding proper replacements for those vacancies, my position included. I have been picking up the slack on where my predecessor left off and that means pressing on with the investigations against Mr. Kray Foresight and his staff.”

Galo could only tense as he processed what Commissioner Reinhart was saying, his fists slowly clenching up to where he felt his nails dig into his palm. He had to ask, to at least settle the growing pit in his stomach, “He’s not getting out, is he?”

“No, son.” Commissioner Reinhart shook his head. “Foresight is facing a multitude of federal charges for government sedition, supplementing acts of terrorism and hate crimes, conspiracy against rights, and countless other acts of kidnapping, murder, and genocide. He’s not getting out for a very long time.”

Galo let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, sluggishly processing that information. Even though his mind was saying things weren’t adding up, he would be lying to himself if he failed to acknowledge the lessening tension in his stomach at the news. “Okay then, well, I still don’t understand why I’m here if you have enough dirt on the Governor to fill his entire grave.”

“I’m getting to that,” Commissioner Reinhart reminded him, signaling his two officers to move into the hall outside. “Last month, we received a plea bargain from Mr. Foresight’s secretary, Miss Biar Colossus. Her attorney stated that she would accept a reduced charge if she provided evidence on another series of kidnapping ordered by Kray Foresight.”

Now that threw Galo for a loop. “Say what? Do you mean that the Governor actually kidnapped someone else that wasn’t a Burnish? I mean, yeah, he did some crazy stuff to cover his tracks but I don’t think he would just kidnap someone that wasn’t a Burnish or wasn’t needed for his plans,” he questioned, increasingly frenetic as he got caught up in the line of thought. He didn’t even notice when the two police officers came back into the room, bringing in two office carts stacked with mailbox bins that looked like they were about to burst from the seams just from holding the huge amount of letters and packages that were stuffed in them. “Wha—”

“Galo, you are that kidnapped victim,.” Ignis interjected, finally breaking the news.

It felt like a shot had gone off in his head, his body unconsciously sinking into the chair he was sitting in. In the back of his mind, he was glad he listened to Ignis because he knew if he was standing, he would have fallen over from shock. Galo couldn’t think, couldn’t even process what his captain was saying. He kept looking between the men in the room, watching for any tell in their faces to say that this was a mistake, for something or someone to pop out and yell, ‘Surprise! You’ve been punked!’

Because this had to be a prank. A really really bad prank or terrible joke…… right?

“This,” He paused to swallow his suddenly dry throat. “ can’t be right.” Galo tried to dismiss the news as a joke he’d lightly let pass, shaking his head but the strain in his voice gave away the tremors that shook through his body and how his emotions ran high and wild. “I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life. I was born here at Promepolis Mercy Hospital, both my parents and my grandfather raised me here, in Promepolis, _so how can you say that I’ve been kidnapped?!”_ he pressed, not realizing how much he raised his voice towards the end. 

Commissioner Reinhart moved his chair forward, keeping his voice low, steady and calm, as though he was trying to project calmness onto Galo. “Son, Mr. Foresight has been withholding you from your birth family for years. After your parents died and your paternal grandfather passed on, all of your foster care placements had been on the recommendation of Mr. Foresight. Your life, from the day you started middle school to when you joined the fire department, Kray Foresight had his hands in. He made it to where you had no reason to leave Promepolis and made sure you had no contact with your external family outside the city. And by legal definition, that is kidnapping. These carts,” he gestured to the packed two-tiered cart, “are filled with letters and packages that have come from your external family over the last twelve years. They were turned over to Promepolis PD for further investigation and the Commissioners’ Office has made sure to follow their processing through to each level, so that we could be rest assured they reached their intended owner. You.”

Galo stared dumbly at the boxes of letters and packages that filled the two carts. Something like this, he should have felt excitement, felt joy, felt something wondrous! He knew deep within his Burning Soul, he should have been fired up beyond compare. Ever since he was a boy, this was something he had wished and dreamed about, but right now all he could feel was his body growing numb. It was like a vacuum turned on inside of him and sucked the fire out of him, leaving behind a swell of aching, numbing cold. He forced his brain to think, to process something. Anything!

Suddenly, his body began to tremble, his pulse erratic and his breathing shallow and quiet. Looking back on it with his training and experience, he already knew what was happening. He had seen it too many times with people they’ve pulled out of infernos. His body was going into shock. 

He needed to get out of there! Out of that room, out of the station, out of the toxic air of dispelled lies that just flooded his heart!

“Sir’s!” He shot to his feet, voice booming, giving the commissioners, the officers, and even Remi a jolt as he nearly knocked the chair down.

Remi moved towards him, realization and concern hazily dawning in his expression.

“I‒‒I need to......” Galo didn’t give himself the chance to finish or for them to start as he peeled out of the office as though he had the hounds of Hades on his tail.

The plexiglass on the door shuddered as Galo ran past it, ignoring Remi’s calls to stop. He barreled down the steps, nearly colliding with Lucia and her exasperated ‘Hey!’ at the foot of the steps, making poor Vinny spin on one of her pigtails as she sidestepped to avoid him. He leaped over the toolbox that Meis and Guiera were using to fix up one of the pile jacks, and he brushed past Lio, ignoring every concerned call of his name as he made a sharp left out of the station house. Galo could already feel his lungs and heart beginning to burn and ache from the low amount of oxygen he had left in him as he turned the end of the block. He was almost free of the station, so close to gone, when he collided with Varys and Aina carrying in replacement parts for her helo-cycle. 

The force of the collision itself wasn't bad. Given any other day, he would brush it off as he bounced back with an apologetic smile and an offering hand. This time, however: when the parts hit the ground, so did Galo. Stopped so close to escaping; feeling absolute panic being trapped, as the world closed in around him, the fire in his lungs growing into an untamable inferno... and Galo didn't get back up. Instead, his brain overloaded with the stress of a reality he just couldn't compute, the spots in his vision swallowed him whole and forced Galo under.

_Why…?_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Someone holds me safe and warm,_

_Horses prance through a silver storm,_

_Figures dancing gracefully across my memory_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: God this hurt so much writing this. So the idea for this plot was actually from throwing ideas around in the Burnish Settlement Discord and it just snowballed from there. I wondered if Galo truly had no other family other than his parents in the city and if so, why was it never brought up in the film, even in a side conversation. Then it hit me! What-if he did but never knew about them? If Kray was willing to manipulate whole systems to let him get away with some such devastation behind the scenes, it makes sense that he would also manipulate Galo in the background until he was no longer useful.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	2. Dim as an Ember

_Far away,_

_Long ago,_

_Glowing dim as an ember,_

_Things my heart used to know,_

_Things it yearns to remember…_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_“Momma. Can you sing your song again, please?”_

_His mother turned to look at him, all laid up under his comforter, his body showing the signs of a very strong cold rampaging through his tiny body as he shivered. His big blue eyes, a perfect reflection of her own, were misty with unshed tears which severely contrasted the red rosies that stained his cheeks. She smiled warmly at him, her body effortlessly gliding across his childhood room to kneel beside him. A beaded headband held her hair back, save for her bangs, which caused it to create a dark cloud of curls around her head. “Can’t sleep without it, huh baby?” She brought a hand to soothe his own spiky hair back._

_He shook his head and tried to answer, but all that came out of him was a series of lung-rattling coughs and some more snot before he collapsed back onto the bed. His mother grabbed some more tissues and wipes off his nightstand to gently clean away the escaped snot and saliva before tossing them into the bin._

_Her face alone showed how much she worried about him. “Ohh, my poor morning star.” She dropped a kiss onto his forehead, the cooling touch acting like balm for his stuffy head and stuffy mind. “How about I hold you for a bit while I sing, okay?”_

_He nodded his head with enthusiasm, moving over to make room for his Momma. The second she was under the covers, Galo laid his head on her chest, nestling into the groove of her neck as she brought her arms around him to hold him close. As they both settled into a comfortable spot on the small bed, he felt her song drift into his ears and deeper into his body, soothing the icky feeling of his sickness as his mother sang._

_ Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay _

_Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay_

_Lay down your head and I'll sing you a lullaby_

_Back to the years of loo-li lai-lay_

_And I'll sing you to sleep and I'll sing you tomorrow_

_Bless you with love for the road that you go_

_May you sail far to the far fields of fortune_

_With diamonds and pearls at your head and your feet_

_And may you need never to banish misfortune_

_May you find kindness in all that you meet_

_May there always be angels to watch over you_

_To guide you each step of the way_

_To guard you and keep you safe from all harm_

_Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay_

_Loo-li, loo-li, lai-lay_

_Loo-li, lai-lay_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Galo could feel his mind slowly coming back into his head, the dream-memory haze slowly dissipating from his mind’s eye. His eyes stung as he tried to open them, as though he fell asleep with dust in his eyes or cried in his sleep, (which, he was no stranger to the latter). He hadn’t cried in his sleep for a long while now, so he guessed he was overdue on that one.

The next thing that he felt was that he was on his back on a very familiar lumpy spring bed with an equally familiar scratchy blanket covering him and a somewhat deflated pillow cushioning his bed. Bringing up a hand to rub away the crust out of his eyes, he slowly sat up. He opened his eyes to see that he was back in one of the station’s bunkrooms. What had been early afternoon when he was called in was now dusk as the setting sun shone the last of its amber and crimson rays past the city’s skyscrapers and through the window blinds of room, giving the brick and mortar wall that lay to the right of him a burning glow. 

A splitting headache decided to make itself known as it pounded the inside of his head and eyes like a worn drum. Letting out a groan and cradling his head into his palm to temporarily soothe the beating behind his eyes, Galo looked to his assigned dresser to grab the bottle of aspirin out of it when he spotted two full glasses of water next to his lamp and small pile of books. Feeling his throat go scratchy again, he grabbed the first glass, steadying his slightly shaking hand and took small sips of water to cool his parched throat. He stopped and set the glass back down on the dresser to open the drawer and neatly pull out the medicine bottle, popping open the lid and two aspirins down his throat before downing the rest of the welcomed liquid. 

After he finished the water, he didn’t set the glass down immediately but instead brought the glass to his forehead and pressed against it, letting the slightly chilled surface relax the tension that remained there.

A series of light footsteps announced a visitor as they entered the room, shutting the door behind them as they drew closer to him. Galo glanced from the corner of his eye to a familiar set of frame-hugging black pants that were tucked into black boots. “Galo?” an alto voice gently asked, the tone carrying out the rest of the question he wanted to ask, _‘Are you alright?’_

Galo removed the glass from his face to slowly look up at his love’s face, seeing traces of concern and worry. He could never stand to see his love’s face stained with them. “You shouldn’t worry so much, firebug,” he tried to joke, cracking a small albeit tired smile. “Otherwise, your face will freeze like that.”

Lio wasn’t buying any of it. He knew Galo was trying to hide behind his smile as he usually did, but his worry for him won out. “Galo, what happened in Ignis’s office?” He sat down next to Galo, the bed dipping a bit with the added weight. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like that.”

Galo dropped the fake smile he sported, putting down the empty glass to pick up the other filled one. “What, running from a fight? So used to my Burning Soul having me charge into everything?” he finished sourly, taking a sip of water.

“Maybe.” Lio bumped his shoulder against Galo’s. “But I’m more used to the firefighter wielding his Burning Soul, to do what he knows is right. Be it a temporary fall back or,” he paused, “doing what he does best and not looking before leaping.” Lio finished in a fondly exasperated tone.

Galo couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Now I wonder who that could be?”

Lio leaned onto Galo’s shoulder. “Somebody who is thoughtful, foolhardy, brave, warm, a bit of an idiot at times,” he listed, lips quirked in an affectionate smile, “And somebody who is very much cared for and has everyone worried for.” He slipped his hand into Galo’s, letting the larger hand curl around his as he threaded his fingers between his to hold.

Galo licked his lips a bit before setting the half-empty glass down on the dresser. “How much do you know?” he asked gingerly.

“After Varys carried you back in here and Remi checked you out, Ignis only briefed us that you had received pretty disturbing news and you, more or less, went into shock.” Lio decided to leave out the part where his heart nearly stopped at the abject fear he spotted in Galo’s eyes during his mad dash out of the firehouse, as well as the sinking cold feeling that paralyzed him when Galo’s unconscious body was carried back into the bunkroom. “He also said that it was not his place to tell us, that it was up to you to share or not.” He stopped himself there, daring not to say anything else until Galo was ready to.

Galo took a deep breath in and then out. He didn’t want to share this, hell, he didn’t even _want_ this to begin with, but he knew if anybody should know about what’s going on in his life, it would be Lio. “They called me in to let me know that Kray Foresight, was not only guilty for all the shit that he’s done to you, the Burnish and the city, he’s also guilty for kidnapping someone that wasn’t a Burnish and keeping them away from their family.”

Lio’s face scrunched up in confusion at the news. “That doesn’t make any sense.” He pulled away from Galo to look up at him. “Why would that bastard kidnap someone that didn’t fit into his plans? He’d either make them disappear or kill them like he did with Professor Prometh.”

Galo brought up his free hand again to cradle his head, the headache from earlier still pounding, but at least it was less than before. The medicine was finally kicking in. “Yeah I thought so too, and I’ve been thinking about it.” He didn’t realize that the hand in his hair began to close up into a tight fist, threatening to yank out his roots. “He kidnapped the one person that could have identified him as a Burnish, who would have gotten him locked up and put away for setting a home on fire with a _sleeping family_ in it, before he ran for Governor. He made sure that someone didn’t leave the city, and never had the idea of leaving the city ‘cuz all he had, schools, training, a life, was in the city itself.”

Lio’s eyes grew wider with Galo’s every word. This almost sounded like, “Galo, isn’t that—?”

“Yeah. Turns out I’m that kidnapped victim,” he finished harshly, pulling his hand away from Lio's. He brought the hand to his head, fingers pulling harshly at his hair. He hoped the pain he was feeling in his scalp would distract him from the growing swell of anger and frustration he felt in his chest. “I had a family out there, one that I never knew about. I didn’t even think about it cuz I thought I was alone in this world other than the _supposed hero who saved me!”_ His words ended in a halfhearted yell.

Lio struck silent with shock, unable to speak before Galo continued. “And you wanna know what’s the really shitty part?!” Tears were building up in Galo’s eyes. “ I don’t hate him! I can’t bring myself to hate him! I should hate him!” His voice boomed loudly against the walls, the anger burning hot inside of him bleeding out into every word. “I lost everything that night and he kept me away from my family for ages, all because of his stupid greed, and I just can’t help but think of how _stupid_ I was to not see any of this at all! I was so blinded by my faith, my trust in him! God, I don’t even know how to feel about this!”

Galo squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force back the onslaught of tears that threatened to escape as the anger in him dimmed with sorrow. So focused on his emotional surge, he didn’t feel Lio move his lithe frame across him to straddle his broader legs. It wasn’t until he felt Lio weaving his fingers along his own, gently coaxing the strained digits to let go of his hair, that he registered Lio was there. Those still gentle hands tilted his head up, making Galo look up into the steady garnet eyes. “Galo, listen to me. At this moment, how do you feel?” Lio’s voice was calm, nonjudgmental. “Don’t think about anything else, just let it out.”

“I feel angry! I feel _lost! I feel terrified!_ ” Galo answered back, but this time the anger quickly dissipated from his voice, turning his words into whispers. His body curled into itself, only stopping when his forehead met Lio’s shoulder. He was still clutching onto Lio’s hands, but this time with much more gentle grasp. “I just found out I have a family! An actual family that’s been looking for me, but it’s been so long! What if they want nothing to do with me anymore?”

Even just voicing that thought alone terrified him. Just as quickly as they—-- this supposed family of his—--found him, he didn’t want to even think about potentially losing them. It would be like losing his parents all over again. “I’m so mad at myself. How did I not see any of this?!” he exclaimed softly, his words muffled by Lio’s shoulder as he tightened his grip on his head.

“Galo. Listen to me." Lio spoke as he could do nothing more but rub Galo’s hands patiently. "It’s alright to feel all this, but none of this was your fault. You didn’t see any of this, nor do you feel hate because you are too good of a person. You want to see the best in others, that it doesn’t even occur to you that people can do bad things."

Lio maneuvered his body a bit closer, nestled firmly in Galo's lap. "And it was not just you he tricked, Galo. He had everyone believing in his false face so well that they let him get away with some of the most heinous crimes, all in the name of the supposed survival of the human race." Galo’s hands loosened from his head to rest lax inside of Lio’s. "If nothing else, he took advantage of you and your stupidly big heart to further his own path without a care to anyone he backstabbed.”

Galo didn’t realize his tears had made their way down his cheeks until Lio brought his hands forward a bit, smoothing his thumbs under his eyes to wipe them away as he laid his forehead against Galo’s. 

Lio continued, “You know despite everything else, I’m grateful that you see the best side of people and even try to help those that need it, because I definitely would not be here had you thought otherwise—especially when I was at my worst.”

Galo could only look at Lio in confusion, like what he said didn't make sense. “Of course I would help you. You were just trying to protect your people.”

Lio answered in kind with a soft chuckle. “You see, you’re too good of a person that the feeling of hate is so foreign to you. That’s the man I fell in love with.” Lio leaned closer to press a kiss on the bridge of Galo’s nose, further leaning in to hug him close.

“Yeah, well, I can’t be a pretty picture right now,” Galo murmured with a pout, trying his best to even out his breathing so he wouldn’t be brought to tears again by Lio's words.

“You’re right. You’re not a pretty picture. You’re a man who’s been through hell and back and yet you still choose to smile everyday like it’s a blessing to be alive. That’s the man I fell in love with and will continue to love for the rest of my days, if he will let me.”

Galo had nothing more to say, he _couldn’t_ say anything as Lio's words pierced his heart and sobs began to escape him, tremors wracking his body. He hugged Lio close, pressing his face over Lio’s heart to feel that familiar heartbeat as all of his emotions left his body in the form of tears.

In return, Lio brought his own arms around to tenderly hold and cuddle Galo’s head close, nuzzling into his fohawk as his love continued to cry. To cry for the family and childhood he lost that night to the flames, for the family that he was denied all these years, and for the shattered ideal of a man he once thought was a hero. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

_And a song someone sings..._

_Once upon a December_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by [@Nishiboys](https://twitter.com/NishiuraBoys/status/1266964730389958661?s=19)
> 
> The song Galo's mother used was [Sleepsong by David Arkenstone and Kathleen Fisher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKtTUhhJjZg). I've always loved this song and I've used it more than once to sing my baby niece and nephew to sleep.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	3. On This Journey to the Past

_Heart, don't fail me now!_

_Courage, don't desert me!_

_Don't turn back now that we're here._

_People always say_

_Life is full of choices._

_No one ever mentions fear!_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Galo continued to cry into Lio's shoulder until he felt as though all the water in him dried up. Now he felt exhausted, numb, and empty, but not the bad kind of empty where it spiralled further into the depths of despair. He felt…like he was floating...just _there_ in existence. He knew the team liked to poke fun and say sometimes that he had nothing going on in his head but this was taking it to another level.

Lio continued to hold him close, running his hands through his fohawk, the slim fingers moving along his head like a mother would do to soothe their child. Even as he coaxed Galo into lying back down on the bed with him, his hand never stopped moving. Both just comfortably held each other as Galo finished his tears.

After what seemed hours, Lio felt that he could ask the question that plagued him most. "This is the second time you've cried today. You going to be okay?"

"Second time?" Galo questioned, his voice hoarse for all his expelled emotions. The glass of water that was still on his counter would definitely help soothe his throat but he didn't want to move quite yet, too comfortable in Lio's arms.

"Mhmm." Lio confirmed, letting one of his thumbs soothe the dried tracks from under Galo's eyes. "After Remi had cleared you earlier, Aina and I came up to check on you. You were crying in your sleep." Lio left off, the question implied in his voice. Galo grew quiet again, thinking back to what he saw before he woke up. Just remembering the memory alone brought a wave of calmness and warmth back into Galo's soul, although Lio mistook his silence for something else. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No." Galo replied, grabbing Lio's hand in his own, his bigger palm dwarfing Lio's. "I want to." Galo paused, collecting himself with a series of deep breaths. "I had a dream...well, it was more like a memory. It was when I was younger; I think I was like five or six at the time. I had this really bad cold, but my mom, she was there taking care of me." He smiled as the memory replayed in his head. “She would always worry whenever I caught something, but she was the best doctor a kid could ever ask for in a mom.”

This brought a smile back to Lio’s face. "What was she like, your mother?" Lio asked, wanting for Galo to continue, even if it was to get his mind off what had happened earlier. This was really the first he’d ever heard Galo talk about his family, outside of his grandfather.

Galo could only smile even more as he saw his mother in his mind’s eye. "She was so warm and bright. She could literally walk into any room and brighten everyone up with her smile and laugh. It was so loud but in a good way,” he reminisced, a quiet laugh slipping from him as he remembered his mother with her head thrown back, eyes crinkled with joy and mouth wide with laughter. “My dad used to say that she could make an angry lion turn into the sweetest kitty cuz she would give him so much love." Galo started lightly trailing his fingers up and down Lio’s back.

"She sounds beautiful." Lio smiled, relaxing more as he felt Galo’s moving fingers. Even when he was down, Galo could never really stop moving, but Lio couldn’t find it within himself to care. So long as Galo was coming back into his warm smiles and vibrant attitude. He never wanted Galo to lose his vibrance, the Burning Soul he’s proudly proclaimed time and time again, and keeping him talking about the best part of his past seemed to be helping, if only a little bit.

Galo moved his head to nod a bit, his forehead rubbing against Lio’s shoulder. "Yeah, she was. I remember she used to have this really black hair.” He paused to let out a brief laugh as he continued on, “It was so dark...I thought she had taken the night sky and put it in her hair when I was kid. It was so thick and soft too; I would love to bury my face into it. She would hold it back with this really cool headband that had these triangle and diamond designs on it." He scrunched up his face a little bit as though he was trying to think of something. “It’s funny. I never really paid attention to what kind of design her headband was, and for a while, I couldn’t even remember how she used to style her hair or remember her face fully, but now, it’s like some parts of my memory are slowly coming back and I can’t get them out of my head.” He began tracing little triangles along Lio’s back, making his love shiver a bit.

"Would it help if I brought up your sketchpad later? So that way you can draw your memories down and not worry about forgetting them again?" Lio offered.

Galo nodded again. "Yeah. That actually would be awesome, but later." Galo buried himself into Lio’s shoulder, silently conveying that he didn’t want to leave the warmth of Lio’s arms just yet.

Lio hummed in return, dropping his hand from it’s perch on Galo’s head in favor of bringing Galo even closer to him.

It’s ironic. Usually it would be Lio seeking out Galo for his soothing hugs and comforting embraces after long days of dealing with stubborn people and their equally stubborn politics. Especially on the days when Lady Luck decided to screw everyone and have the absolute worst of the worst come down on them, with emergency callouts stretching them thin, social skirmishes between the former Burnish communities and the rest of the population flaring up, and paparazzi constantly hounding them about the looming federal trials of one bastard of an ex-Governor and his company staff.

But right now, Lio would gladly spoil Galo for a bit longer. 

Galo pulled back from Lio’s shoulder to look at him face-to-face. “Thank you Lio,” he breathed, a small tired smile making its way onto his lips. “I really didn’t know what else to do.”

“Of course, Galo.” Lio smiled back at Galo, dropping a small kiss to his lips. “You never need to worry about asking for my help, especially with something like this. To be frank, I don’t think anyone in your situation would know what to do alone.”

Galo went quiet, replaying in his mind all that had happened this afternoon. He knew what he had been told was not a lie, and yet it still felt so unreal. “I still don’t understand. I know in my head, the Gov’ was guilty for a lot of things.” Lio couldn’t help how his body went tense when Galo brought _him_ up again. “Fuck! Even I know what he’s done is inexcusable and I know he has to answer for it all. So then, why do I still feel like this? Why does it still hurt when I know he’s done so much bad to so many people and didn’t even bat an eye doing it?” 

Lio could only shake his head, not liking the tone in his love’s voice. Sorrow never suited this larger-than-life man. “You said so yourself. He was your hero. You’ve looked up to him for so long that it never once crossed your mind that he was betraying all the ideals that you thought he upheld. That kind of betrayal doesn’t go away overnight.” Lio knew all too well the price of what could happen when trust is betrayed.

Galo lowered his head, his lips pursed and his eyes watering slightly as he let Lio’s words sink in, allowing a wave of somber acceptance to roll over him. A slender finger curled under his chin to gently raise his gaze back up to Lio. Garnet eyes alit with smouldering regard. “I will say this. While I will always despise Kray Foresight for what he has done to my people and to those he had no regard for, nothing compares to the amount of _**fury**_ ,” Lio growled out the word, ghosts of the flames that once lived within him hot on his breath with the sheer amount of fire in his voice, “I feel towards him for hurting you so badly. I can’t tell you how much hate and disgust I have for him right now for making you feel this way.”

Turquoise eyes widened before a warm smile slowly broke out onto Galo’s lips. “Ya know, aside from the hate and the anger, that’s honestly the most romantic thing I’ve heard you say yet,” he said, his usual cheeriness coming back.

Lio pulled back, the scowl he wore quickly supplanted by a pout. “Hmph. Then I need to step up my game if that’s your idea of romanticism.”

Just as Galo opened his mouth to retort, a large and drawled out growl emitted from his stomach and cut him off. At least he had the decency to blush as he looked down at his stomach then back at Lio’s enlarged eyes, letting out a nervous chuckle as he brought up a hand to scratch the back of his neck. “I never got the chance to eat,” he offered, sheepish.

With a soft chuckle, Lio took a peek at the clock on the wall, its hands showing that it was almost past dinner time. He dropped another kiss onto the bridge of Galo’s nose before pulling away. “Come on then. Let’s go find something.”

Galo nodded in reply, letting Lio detangle himself from his embrace and move off the cot, the old mattress squeaking a bit as Galo did the same. However, standing to his full height brought his headache back with a vengeance, leaving Galo hissing as he clutched at his head. Before Galo could move to do anything about it, Lio was already fetching the water glass from his nightstand for him. His chest warmed at the way Lio could read his needs without a word, and he smiled as he took the proffered cup to gulp down the remaining water in it. With a gentle tug on Galo's hand, Lio then led them out of the bunkroom and down the familiar darkened hall to the kitchen area, the room lit by the ambient lighting that spilled out of the connected breakroom.

Galo stopped dead when he heard the ever-familiar commotion of the team moving and rummaging around in the cupboards, their idle talk filling the air. Why were they still here? It was past normal shift hours. They should be on their way home. A little speck of apprehension and worry began to settle and grow in the pit of his stomach as his thoughts ran away from him again. Did they know about him? Would they treat him any differently now that he found out he was, still, _whatever_ , technically kidnapped? Would they look at him differently as others had before once when it came out that he was an orphan, one of the Gov’s supposed sheltered children whose families were lost to the Burnish?

His abrupt pause was not missed by Lio, whose hand was jerked back when Galo stopped. Eyes immediately searching Galo's face, Lio's worry heightened at the pensiveness that had returned to twist Galo's features. Pinched eyebrows and a tense look clouding his eyes did not suit Galo at all. “Hey,” he spoke first, lifting a hand to cradle Galo’s cheek, snapping him out of his chaotic mind spin. “What’s wrong?”

Galo shook his head, trying to get rid of the swarming dark clouds that jumbled his head, lifting his own hand to Lio’s to keep it close, its warmth anchoring him. “Just thinking. I’m worried. Does anyone know what actually...?” He trailed off.

Lio shook his head in response. “No. No one knows outside of Ignis and Remi and they’ve been pretty tight-lipped about it. I mentioned before what they've stressed to all of us: that it was up to you to share or keep it to yourself. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen everyone agree on something outside of food.”

A wave of relief flooded Galo at that, the breath he didn't realize he was holding escaping his lungs shakily. “I’m surprised Lucia and Aina didn’t start to hound Remi for more information. They’re usually pretty adamant when it comes to stuff like this.”

“I think they tried but Remi gave them this look that wasn’t his usual ‘I’m not sharing’ look. Also, I believe the way Ignis explained it left them no room to question it.” Lio provided.

Galo could only laugh when Lio described the face Remi made. He knew exactly which face it was since he himself had been on the receiving end of that look more often than not, especially when Remi cornered him for paperwork.

Hearing Galo's warm laugh again, Lio let the tense feeling in his shoulders fade away a bit, and he tugged on Galo’s hand again to softly urge him forward. The silent comfort in his action spoke louder than anything Lio could have offered with words, the sentiment clear. _You’re not alone. I have you. We can move forward._

Galo slipped his hand fully around Lio's, interlocking their fingers in his own quiet response. _I hear you. Thank you. I love you._

The bright LEDs of the breakroom made Galo’s eyes sting, forcing him to squint before they fully adjusted to the brightness. Once his eyes stopped prickling from the light, his focus was drawn to their break area where a full spread feast covered the entire coffee table, the aroma of it wafting deliciously into the air. Instead of their usual dishes of pizza, out laid steaming aluminum trays piled with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cooked greens, a whole bowl of salad, what looked like homemade chicken noodle soup, and breadsticks from the bakery down the road. Off to the side on another table laid an assortment of miscellaneous drinks, plates, and other tableware for everyone to grab.

Meis, Guiera, and Aina were the first to walk back in the room, hauling the last of the paper plates and red cups o a nearby counter when they caught the ever-familiar duo. “ **OI! HE’S UP!** ” Guiera cried out, his voice booming throughout the station. It made Meis and sometimes Galo rub their ears a bit every time he did that, but it proved to be effective as everybody swiftly filed into the room.

Lucia, typing away at several programs on her big console, paused her movements and swiveled her seat around, Vinnya resting comfortably on her shoulder. Varys came out of the head office with Ignis and Remi in tow. Meis and Gueira moved around to the other side of the food filled table as Aina moved to stand close to Lio and Galo. Given any other day, Galo would've had no problem being the center of attention, but right now the weight of the stares felt too heavy to bear and some part of him kind of wished that the floor would just open up and swallow him whole. 

“Hey guys, sorry about earlier.” Galo started, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. “Didn’t mean to scare all of you like that.”

“It’s all good, rookie.” Varys offered. “We know you well enough that hardly anything shakes you, so for you to take off like that, it must have been one hell of a scare.”

“I’m with Varys,” chirped Lucia, Vinny raising his tiny fist in agreement. “Though I’m dying to know. Are you good now and what the hell made you run in the first place?”

Lio looked up in concern to see Galo’s face pinch again, the hand he was still holding onto gripping with a bit more pressure. “I don’t want to talk about it just yet. I will, at some point, but right now I’m kinda ingesting it still.”

“I think you mean _di_ gesting it, Galo,” Aina corrected, "and don’t worry about it, take as much time as you need to. Just know that we’re here for you if you need to talk. You don’t have to deal with this on your own.”

“I’m goin’ with Aina on this one, mate. If anything, you don’t have to tell us jack shit. That look I caught on you earlier, looked like you saw a spook or somethin’.” Guiera jumped in, letting his head lean back a bit in his interlaced hands. “I’ll say this much. If it has something to do with that bastard Foresight again, I’m gunna start findin’ ways to shank a bitch again. No questions asked.”

“Christ, love! Please keep your murderistic tendencies to a minimum. We’re trying to keep our jobs, not lose them.” Meis sighed heavily, bringing up a slim hand to rub the bridge of his nose to soothe away the impending headache his husband was going to give him.

“What?! Jus’ sayin’,” Guiera defended with a pout.

“Ignoring the implications of potentinal murder, I believe the team said it best, Galo.” Ignis contributed, giving the former generals a weary side glance before looking directly at Galo, letting years of wisdom and comradery come into play. “Burning Rescue is more than just a rescue squad. We’re a family, and we look out for our family.”

Galo stood still in shock as everyone met him with smiles on their faces, each one showing a sign of acceptance in their own way. “Thanks guys. Really, you don’t know how much that means to me.” He breathed out, the tightness in his chest easing. “So where did all this food come from anyways?” He pointed towards the small buffet. 

“Aina had brought up that you hadn’t eaten yet so we all chipped in to bring something,.” Remi answered. “The only thing that’s homemade is the chicken soup Varys brought in.”

“Momma’s soup always tasted the best when any one of us in the family was feelin’ down.” Varys chuckled a bit. “I ran home to get some of the chairs we keep in the garage and Momma said she had to make some after I explained why I was grabbing the chairs.”

“Nothing like comfort food to settle whatever’s going on,.” Meis added.

“Hey, not to be the classic bitch or anything, but since we’re cool and all, can we eat now, cuz I’m starving?!” Lucia chimed in, Vinny brandishing his tiny versions of a fork and knife at the ready.

Galo could only laugh at Lucia as he watched everyone start to dissolve into their ways, grabbing plates for their portion of the buffett, their drinks, Guiera going as far as swiping some ginger ale for both him and Meis before claiming a spot next to his husband on the sofa. Galo and Lio began to filter into the mesh of people as they each grabbed their own food. 

As everyone sat at their own spots on the couch and the chairs pulled up in between, idle chatter began to float through the air. Aina argued with Lucia about swiping some of her chicken. Meis offered Vinny some of his bread before the firehouse mascot made a beeline to Guiera’s lap, the red-headed man bringing one of his hands down to pet and scratch Vinny. Varys loaded up on the infamous soup while Remi and Ignis talked to Lio about some designs for his mech suit with their own plates of food on their laps.

Galo looked around the room with a warm bowl sitting in his lap. He couldn’t help but feel the tender sensation that flooded his entire being, finally forcing the last of the chill from today’s events out of his body. Watching as everyone bonded over their own stories, bemoaned their recent frustrations from that day, or just talked about any random event that happened recently, Galo wondered if this is what having a family would feel like…

Family…

A family…

Like the one he had so long ago with his parents…like the ones that were looking for him, the ones that possibly never stopped hoping and believing that he was still out there in the world, trying to reach out to him. The letters and packages in Ignis’s office were proof of that, right?

He was halfway through his bowl of soup when he noticed water droplets into his bowl, rippling the surface. He didn't recognize why, though, until Aina noticed something on his face and asked if he was okay.

Everyone turned their eyes towards Galo as he lifted his hand to his face, bringing it back to find the pads of his fingers glistening wet. Oh, he was crying again, but he didn’t feel any sadness or the overbearing weight of emptiness this time. No, this was warmth, giddiness, and just pure unadulterated happiness that was beginning to overflow his entire being. He didn’t offer any explanation as he laughed brightly. He couldn’t contain it anymore as words exploded from him. “I’m fine! No, I'm beyond fine! **I’M ON FIRE**!” he exclaimed loudly, euphoria radiating from his voice. “I have a family! An actual family out there! And they’ve been looking for me!”

He swung Lio, who was sitting next to him, and Aina, who had brought Galo some tissues, up and around in a bear hug. Thankfully, their food was safe on the tables as Galo exploded with happiness. “I mean, Burning Rescue will always be my family, no argument there, but I have a legit family! I have actual blood relatives! I have maybe a cousin or an uncle or,” he stopped to gasp in more air, “maybe even grandparents! **I HAVE AN ACTUAL FAMILY**!!” he roared, and the tears trailed down his face were of complete joy this time.

At the outburst, everybody else, save for Meis, Remi, and Ignis, exploded too with equal parts shock and excitement, Galo’s sudden burst in energy contagious and spreading like wildfire. Guiera launched himself onto Galo’s back, shimmying his body up to where he could sit up on Galo’s shoulders and mess up his hair. Varys and Lucia jumped in to gang up on Galo by wrapping him into another bear hug, Vinny running up to nuzzle Galo’s cheek, with Lio and Aina still trapped in the middle. Despite the closeness and the powerful hugs that toed the line of suffocation, there was no shortage of smiles, laughter, and cheers as Galo allowed everyone's warmth to imprint into his Burning Soul.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Home, Love, Family._

_There was once a time_

_I must have had them, too._

_Home, Love, Family,_

_I will never be complete_

_Until I find you..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	4. Bring Me Home

_One step at a time,_

_One hope, then another,_

_Who knows where this road may go_

_Back to who I was,_

_On to find my future._

_Things my heart still needs to know._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“....”

“Are you still staring at them?” Lio asked, fresh out of the shower and rubbing his damp hair dry.

“….”

“And you’re still quiet. That’s rare, considering you’ve never once stopped talking, and you sleeping doesn’t count. You mumble every now and then.”

“....”

Lio met the continued silence with a small exasperated breath before continuing on. “They are not going to disappear on you, Galo. The Promare are not going to come back in a burst of all consuming flames into our living room if you decide to, oh I don’t know, take a shower, brush your teeth, get into something more comfortable…..or decide to blink!”

“....”

Well, it’s time to get serious then. This time, he gave a hum before, “....So you know how I’ve been feeling sick as of late? Turns out, it was not that leftover pizza we ordered from that one place; I’m about 6 months pregnant with your twins.”

 _That_ brought Galo out of his stupor as he jerked his head towards Lio. “Wait! What?! How come you didn’t tell me you were feeling sick?” 

“I’m not, but apparently your selective hearing kicked in.” Lio grumped, a pout on his face as he crossed his arms. “Though I don’t know whether to be miffed or happy that the one thing that brings you out of a stupor is the question of my health, not my impending pregnancy."

Just hearing the word ‘pregnancy’ from Lio made Galo's eyes grow impossibly wide. "Huh?!" His gaze darted back and forth several times from Lio's seemingly flat stomach, hidden beneath one of Galo's shirts draping down to the top of his knee to his face. "But I thought those alien fire thingies didn't do anything to you!"

"They didn't, Galo. I was kidding." Lio shook his head, the tone in his voice shifting from exasperation to concern. "You zoned out the minute we brought the boxes home. I was trying to get your attention."

Galo rapidly blinked a few times before he let out a sheepish, "Oh, right. Sorry." He rubbed at the bridge of his nose to soothe away the looming weariness that hit him, now that his focus was broken.

After the impromptu celebration and buffet at the firehouse, Remi shooed everyone out that wasn’t on the night watch detail, reminding them they still had to work their regular shifts come the next morning. Not that they needed much convincing, seeing as some had already started to trickle out on their own. 

By the time all the leftovers had been stored for later, the chairs were put away, and the trash cleaned up from the common area and thrown away, the sun had set. Outside, the street lights flickered to life as the nightlife slowly made their way into the city. 

Since Galo and Lio both rode to the station on their bikes, Varys—who had his pickup truck with him, since he had used it to bring in extra chairs for dinner—offered to help them haul Galo’s letters and packages from Ignis’s office to their apartment. It took minimal effort to load up and tie down the seven postal boxes in the back of Varys’s truck and drive them over to the apartment, Galo and Lio trailing behind the truck at an easy pace.

Typically, Galo and Lio would race either to or from the station to see who could beat the other’s time, (within the speed limits, at Galo’s insistence), and the winner would get their choice in either favors or food choices, but today, they were both satisfied in keeping an even pace a safe distance behind Varys’s truck. Once they pulled into their neighborhood, it took the collaborative effort of all three of them to carry the loaded parcel boxes up to the couple’s apartment. After they deposited the boxes into the living room and saw Varys out, Galo took up a semi-permanent perch on the couch, holding a close vigil on the boxes that might hold the biggest revelations of Galo’s life, just in case they decided today was the day to grow legs and walk out on him. There he remained, even after Lio went about his usual nighttime routine of showering and cleaning.

Lio let out a deep sigh, shaking his head again. Instead of continuing their line of conversation, Lio simply made his way to the dark pleather couch to take a seat next to his love. Galo immediately wrapped his arm around the smaller man’s back and Lio leaned into the embrace, resting his head against Galo’s shoulder. "What is going on in that head of yours, my love?"

Galo answered with a deep sigh of his own. "I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair, the spikes springing back into their usual position as his fingers passed over them. "I guess some part of me is still thinkin' that it all is just a dream, like I'm gonna wake up back in my bed and find out that all this was just somethin’ my heart dreamed up."

"I think I can help with that." Lio brought a hand to Galo's jawline, angling his head towards his lips. Their kiss, while short, held nothing back in its heat. “Still think you’re in a dream?”

“Nah.” Galo’s smile held a saucy edge to it. “Not anymore. That felt too good to be a dream.”

“Glad to have that effect on you,” Lio answered, a soft look on his face. “So then, what’s the other part of you thinking?”

A pensive look dawned on Galo’s face and he looked back to the boxes of letters. “The other part,” he took a deep breath, bracing himself, “is wondering what the hell I'm going to find in these letters.”

“I’d imagine answers.” Lio shrugged. “You said they’re from your family. How come you never talked about them before?” Lio wondered aloud, thinking over how Galo would talk about his grandfather every now and again but rarely, if ever, spoke about his parents.

Galo scratched his head. “Honestly, it’s because I don’t remember. Outside of my parents and grandfather—dad’s dad, by the way—all my memories are more or less shot. The therapist I saw as a kid, they said it had something to do with the fire that killed my parents. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me back then and it still doesn’t now.”

Lio knew exactly what Galo was talking about, having seen it firsthand whenever he and his generals had rescued newly-flared Burnish, especially with the younger ones who were no more than six or seven. “After all that trauma you experienced, your mind must have sealed off your memories to protect itself from any more stress. But since your grandfather is the one that took you in, your memories of him are stronger.”

“Yeah, something like that. It still confuses the hell out of me sometimes, cuz even my memories of him are all fuzzy,” Galo offered, trying to remember the elderly gentleman’s face. He had no problem recalling his stern but kind words, his aging hands holding him close, his mannerisms that spoke of his Japanese heritage, but when it came to his facial features, all he could see in his memories were blank faces. “I’ve honestly lost track of how many times I’ve tried to remember their faces and come up with nothin’. Doesn’t help that all of our belongings were non-recoverable from the fire, so I’m going off of nothing.”

Lio looked up to Galo, not liking the solemn tone and matching look that crept back into his profile. Effortlessly moving his body across Galo’s broad frame, he pulled Galo into a firm hug. As Lio wrapped his arms around Galo’s shoulders, Galo circled his arms around Lio’s back in turn, and Lio nestled his chin in the crook of Galo’s neck. “I’m sorry.” Lio could only offer his sympathy and remorse as he imagined a smaller version of Galo, cheeks plump with childhood baby fat and eyes full of sparkling innocence, having to go through something that no child should ever go through: the loss of a home, of a family.

Galo chuckled even as a sad smile crossed his lips, his hands drifting along the plane of Lio’s back. “For what, firebug? You weren’t the one that started the fire that night.”

Lio tightened his embrace as he thought of the man who was responsible; the one person who shared the gift-curse of being a Burnish and used that ability to ruin countless lives without remorse. “No, but it was a Burnish who was responsible, and it was a Burnish who left you these marks.” He freed one hand to trace along the damaged skin that danced along Galo’s arm, his protective sleeve thrown into the wash along with their usual load. “For all the damage you’ve taken on in your life because of the Burnish, I’m truly surprised that you don’t hold any hate for them, for us. I think you of all people would have every right to,” he finished, the thought small and dark as it wormed into his mind. He couldn’t bear the image of Galo holding onto any kind of hate, let alone hate for the Burnish and, quite possibly, Lio. He buried his face into the dip of Galo's neck, willing the warmth that Galo radiated to melt the irrational image away from his mind..

Galo gave Lio’s words a moment to sink in before he gently shook his head, a disbelieving chuckle vibrating from within his chest as his hand continued to coast up and down Lio’s back in a soothing gesture. “Yeah, but it was also a Burnish that pulled me out from the web of lies that I didn’t even know that I was in, a Burnish that was my partner in piloting the Lio de Galon to save the world, that also gave me one of the best fights I ever had, and it was that very same Burnish that matched my Burning Soul, that I’ve fallen in love with.” He finished with a cheeky smile, pulling Lio away from his hiding place on his shoulder to look at him. “So really, I’ve never had a reason to hate the Burnish. Yeah, what happened in the end, I wouldn’t wish on anyone, including the Governor—don’t give me that look,” he responded to Lio’s soured expression with a pointed look of his own, “But I could never blame the people that caused those incidents to happen. They were probably just as scared and terrified as I was that something like that happened. And besides, I know what it’s like to be picked on for _what_ you are, not being seen for who you are, and it sucks. Now _that,_ I wouldn’t wish on anyone either.”

Lio was struck silent by the end of Galo’s little speech, utterly gobsmacked at the sentiment behind it. How can anyone have that much forgiveness and love in their bodies and not be called an angel? To forgive the ones that inflicted so much hurt and grief on him and still give out the one of the brightest smiles he’s ever seen? And how the hell did he, the former leader of a notorious terrorist group, ever get fortunate to have someone like Galo come into his life and give him a chance?

“You know if anyone other than me heard you say that, they would have called you an idiot for having that much forgiveness?” Lio questioned, tone awed with all the warmth he held in his heart for this man.

“Well, if that makes me an idiot nowadays, then so be it. I would rather be the World’s Number One Firefighting Idiot who’s learned to forgive than be a sourpuss with their nose so high up in the air, if it rains they drown.” Galo replied, a smile never fading from his features.

Lio couldn’t help but to burst out laughing at the imagery Galo described, and his infectious laughter made Galo chuckle too. “Maybe you getting knocked around too many times as an idiot firefighter might have loosened up more than a few screws. You have no common sense left in you,” Lio teased lightly.

“Hey now,” Galo objected, although any indignance was belied by the smirk he wore. “I have plenty of sense left in me. I have enough to know that I have a good thing going with you, right?”

“Hmmm, that’s true. Though your face says otherwise. It still has stupidity written all over it.” Lio snarked back, but with none of the intended bite as he raised himself onto his knees, cradling Galo’s face between his hands to squish his tan cheeks.

“Oh yeah?” Galo egged on. “Then whatcha gonna do about it, Big Boss? Cuz I’m stupid over you.”

“Nothing too punishing.” Lio threatened, again with none of the bite that he had once used but the gleam in his eye never faded. Squashing Galo’s cheeks a bit more, Lio leaned down until he was about a breath away from Galo. “I’m just going to kiss the stupidity out of you.” And with that, he sealed his lips against Galo’s for a long kiss, Lio’s teeth nibbling on Galo’s bottom lip, forcing groans from the firefighter as Lio swept his tongue to entangle with Galo's. As he lowered his hands to circle Galo’s neck, Lio felt himself being drawn in closer by warm hands anchoring themselves along the small of his back. The two only parted when they were forced to breathe, and it wasn’t for more than a second before they went back in for another kiss, which led into another, then another, and another.

When the heat between them rose from comfortable and into sweltering, the two finally broke apart. A string of saliva connected them as they pulled away from each other, as reluctant as them to let go of the moment, the thread thinning with the distance until it finally broke. Lio let his body sink back into Galo’s embrace, dropping his head down to Galo’s neck and nuzzling into the familiar spot as Galo dipped his head to breathe in Lio’s intoxicating scent of mint and roses. Their tight embrace never slacked, both content in just holding each other, until Lio broke the quiet. “You know you don’t have to open them tonight. I don’t think another twelve hours of waiting is going to hurt anyone.”

Galo breathed in a deep breath, filling his chest with air before letting it out. “ _Haaa_ , I guess you’re right. They can wait until tomorrow, or at least until I feel it in my Burning Soul that I’m ready to open them.”

“Now that’s a sound plan.” Lio pressed one last nuzzle and kiss to Galo’s neck before raising himself up on his knees again. “Besides, I think someone is getting sleepy.”

“Who?” Galo questioned, even as weariness pulled at his features.“Cuz I’m not —” his protest was cut short by a yawn, which mumbled his words as he finished, “—‘m not sleepy yet.”

“Yes you are.” Lio smiled gently, unable to resist squishing Galo’s cheeks again. “How does a massage sound for my big strong fireman?”

“A massage sounds hella dope!” Galo perked up with all the energy he had left, although even that was rapidly leaving him. “But then, I really will fall asleep and not get up. Are you trying to kill me, Lio?” he asked with all the seriousness of a puppy trying to act tough.

“No,” Lio chuckled. “But I am trying to get you to relax so you **can** sleep. Ignis did say we were off tomorrow and that he better not see us back at the firehouse until you went through your ‘paperwork’.” Lio maneuvered off Galo’s lap, tugging on the arms that held him as he pulled Galo to stand with little effort. “And, after what just happened today, you deserve to be spoiled a bit more.”

“Yeah, okay, a massage—” another yawn, this time longer and jaw-cracking, interrupted Galo, “...sounds really good then.” Galo loosely allowed Lio to pilot his body towards their bedroom as his energy continued to ebb away, all of the day's events catching up to him fast and hard.

“Come on, one long, relaxing massage is in order,” Lio coaxed as he flicked the living room and kitchen lights off in passing, darkness taking over their apartment until the only light in the house was what spilled out from beneath the bedroom door as Lio kicked it shut behind them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_He was floating._

_Well, it actually felt like he was being carried, with the sensation of arms holding him close as he laid his tired and sleepy head against a shoulder and his tiny arms hugged the bigger frame close, but the person carrying him didn't give off the usual telltale warmth he was used to from when his mother would carried him. Also, the person holding him with such practiced ease was much broader and burlier than what he was used to._

_Maybe it was his dad carrying him this time? But, Galo never remembered his dad smelling like the ground before a rainstorm hit or having this strange calming aura that put Galo at ease, the once very active child now a sleepy puppy that clung to the calming warmth and comfort this person easily provided._

_"I can carry him now, ‘Tou-san. He must be getting heavy for you." Another male spoke, the smooth timbre of his voice giving away his identity. That was his dad, he'd recognize his voice anywhere! But then, who was carrying him?_

_"No heavier than my own sons, Isamu-kun. I do not mind carrying Galo at all." The person carrying him answered, his deep accented voice resonating beneath Galo as he felt his chest vibrate gently. This made Galo giggle in his half-sleep, snuggling further into the gentle hold this person had on him. Happiness and contentment filled him as he felt a larger hand run soothing circles on his back, calloused fingers catching on the material of his shirt. "It will not be long now before he becomes too big to carry."_

_He was so comfortable that words slipped out of him without thought. "...Jiji..."_

_Jiji...Jiji…Jiji...wait wasn't that grandpa in Japanese?_

_Galo got his answer as he heard, and felt, a chuckle escape from the man holding him before he spoke. “Hai. Ore wa ojiichan desu.” (Yes. I am grandpa.)_

_Galo felt a smile creep up in his sleep as he let the calming back rubs carry him back into the world of dreams._

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Galo’s senses came back to him slowly, from the feeling of his and Lio’s limbs tangled comfortably together, mattress soft beneath them, to the sound of a stray dove cooing from outside their bedroom window. Not yet opening his eyes, he mentally reviewed the scene that played in his dream before it could escape him. 

Another memory. A good one too, but why were they coming back now? What’s so different now that they were coming back to him but when he tried to desperately hang on to them when he was younger, he couldn’t even remember his parents’ faces, let alone anyone else’s? And how the hell did he forget that he had (probably) another set of grandparents?!

Galo rubbed at his eyes, both to clear the frustration from his mind as well as to chase away any remaining sleepiness. With a yawn, Galo finally blinked his eyes open to face the day. The slivers of ruby and amber that peeked through the blackout curtains to hit the wall on his right showed that he woke up a little later then he was used to. Lifting his head from where he had snuggled into the crown of Lio's hair, he peeked over his shoulder to see the digital clock on his bedside table read forty minutes past his usual wake-up call.

Thank god his boyfriend was aware enough last night to turn off their alarms for this morning. Galo could barely keep his eyes open when his body hit the bed last night and he melted even more into the mattress as Lio proceeded to knead and work out every piece of tension and stress out of Galo’s body, lulling him into a gentle sleep. He made a note to return the favor back to Lio tenfold whenever he got the opportunity. 

Galo placed a gentle kiss on the top of Lio’s head before he began to gently unwind himself from the mesh of entangled limbs, getting up from the mattress with gentle care so as to not disturb his love.

He was successful in this goal as the only movement Lio made was to hug Galo’s pillow closer to him, a gentle inhale followed by a deep exhale escaping him as he breathed in the remnants of Galo's scent.

Quietly tiptoeing out of the bedroom, Galo got to work on his usual morning routine. When Galo was the first one awake, he liked to leave Lio to get a few more minutes of blissful rest. Being awake first had its perks, too, as Galo immediately hopped into the bath for an energizing hot shower to start his day. Once finished, he dressed in his typical loungewear—one of his older FDPP shirts and a well-worn pair of sweatpants—while still a bit damp, and headed into the kitchen to get started on breakfast. The comforting aromas of coffee and bacon infusing the air would be enough to stir Lio out of his slumber.

By the time Lio emerged from their bedroom, his hair sticking up in wildly different directions and eyes still clenched thin to minimize light exposure, Galo had finished plating their breakfast meal of hot cereal, bacon, fruit salad, and toast onto their small table. With a drive-by kiss as they both grabbed their coffees, they sat down at the table to eat their breakfast in comfortable peace.

Once they were done with breakfast and got to work on the dishes, it wasn’t until Lio was searching the kitchen for Galo’s mug so he could finish loading the dishwasher that he noticed Galo had left, at some point wandering back into their living room with said mug filled with a another full cup of coffee. Peering around the doorframe to check on him, Lio watched as Galo placed his mug onto the coffee table and grabbed one of the mailboxes, shifting through the many envelopes from his spot on the couch. When Galo pulled the letters out to observe the markings on the stamps, Lio’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Galo, what are you doing?” Lio asked as he strolled into the room and took his usual spot next to Galo on the couch, the cushion dipping a bit with the added weight. His expression was openly, but patiently, inquisitive as he nursed his coffee.

“Sorting the letters and packages,” Galo answered, grabbing what looked like receipts taped to each of the boxes. His eyes trailed along the neatly scribbled sheet. “These invoices the police left say that no trace of food or biodegradables were found in the packages, so they’re safe to open.”

Lio glanced at the rest of boxes sitting in front of their entertainment stand. “Would it be alright if I…” He motioned towards the boxes.

“Hmm?” Galo followed Lio’s line of sight, figuring out the rest of Lio’s implied question. “Oh, yeah! Go for it.”

Setting his own mug aside, Lio grabbed another filled box and brought it back with him to the couch. As he rummaged through the envelopes, he took note of each postmark date that was on the edges of the envelopes. “It looks like they already did most of the work. These are all grouped together by their postage dates.”

“Okay.” Galo looked up from the bookmarked spot in his box, thinking over how best to tackle this. “Well, since they all have postage dates on them, we’ll use them like a timeline, then we’ll sort the boxes themselves from the very beginning all the way to now, if any more letters came in recently.”

Lio couldn’t have thought of a better plan himself, and he nodded in reply as he helped Galo rearrange the boxes in order. From there, they followed through each of the marked dates on the envelopes. As they continued through each box, Lio couldn’t help but notice that the bulk of the letters and packages came from earlier on, the first and largest batch from twelve years ago. What started as an endless amount of letters that came within the first two months of their timeline slowly trickled down over the course of five years to a more believable amount of two or three letters per month, and the dates steadily crept closer and closer to today’s date until, finally, they came upon the very last letter. 

“Okay, this is the last one.” Galo announced as he pulled the last envelope out from the final box. He began to pass the box to Lio for him to add to their pile only to pause mid-motion when he got a closer look at the date stamped onto the envelope. “Huh, this is weird.” Galo remarked, bringing the parcel closer to his face.

“What?” Lio questioned from the floor, where he sat next to the other boxes they had already sorted.

“The date on this one.” Galo answered, turning the envelope around to see if there were any other markings on it. “It’s from when I got that medal from…” He tapered off, the man’s name and the affectionate title Galo once had for him sticking thick in his throat as the memory of how he got that medal in the first place played in his mind, leaving a vile aftertaste. 

Lio, aware of where Galo’s sentence had been headed, rose from his spot on the floor to move closer to Galo, sliding a comforting hand into his larger one. “Hey, it’s okay…It’s from the day Foresight gave you the medal for my capture, huh?” Lio continued for him, phrased as a question even though he already knew the answer.

“Yeah.” Galo answered back, entangling his fingers with Lio’s as he exhaled noisily, resting his head atop the back of the couch. “Sometimes, I wish I can take that memory and toss it right into the lake along with that damn medal.”

Lio leaned in and laid his cheek against Galo’s shoulder, hoping that the silent reassurance would provide small waves of comfort. “I know, but we can’t change what’s already been done, and it’s not like you knew what was happening beyond capturing me.”

“I know, but it still hurts to even think that I had a hand in it,” Galo retorted, soft and somber.

Lio looked up at Galo, pressing a feather-soft kiss into his cheek. “Hey, you know that I never blamed you for that, right? And neither does Meis and Guiera.” 

Galo nodded. “Yeah, I know.” He let go of Lio’s hand in favor of looping his arm around Lio’s shoulders and pulling him into a side hug. “Thanks, firebug.”

Lio circled his arms around Galo’s torso in kind to deepen the hug. “Of course.”

After he gave himself a moment to bask in their embrace, Galo brought his attention back to the sealed letter at hand. Galo took a deep, bracing breath, preparing himself for whatever he was about to unfold in this letter as he gently tore open the side. Out of the envelope came a three page letter folded around the middle and, when he unfurled it, three pictures that fluttered out and onto Galo’s lap.

Picking them up with a gentle sort of reverence, Galo could only stare at the smiling faces looking up at him. The first photo that caught his eye appeared to be a recent Christmas family portrait. In it, a lone, elderly, beautiful woman stood in an equally beautiful red dress with white trimming, surrounded by six handsomely dressed men donning matching suits of dark red and white with dark silver ties. All the younger males—clearly sons of the couple if their matching eyes, smiles, and other facial features were anything to go by—were off to the right of the woman in a somewhat formal order by age while the older gentleman, a Japanese male Galo noted, stood to the left of her. Most of the younger men and the lone woman had their own version of smiles in the picture, but the elder man and one other male held a straight face.

They all felt very familiar to Galo, and it was sitting at the tip of his tongue as to who they were, but for the life of him, Galo couldn’t remember their names. Shifting his attention back to the paper in his hand, Galo took another bracing breath as he read the letter aloud, hoping his answers lay there. “ _‘Hey buddy, I don’t know if this letter will be able to reach you. Cret—’_ Crit-Creteus…?” He broke off in confusion, his posture asking for help as he moved the letter in front of Lio and pointed to the name, “Is that how you say the name? Creteus?”

Lio gently grabbed the letter to better look at the neat handwriting. “Yes, that’s how you say it. It’s a very old Greek name.” Lio said, providing some sort of insight. “Though it’s not one that I’ve seen used outside of old literature books.”

“Huh…” Galo trailed off, resuming his place. “ _‘Creteus had mentioned before that if you weren’t answering our letters then we may as well stop here. No sense of wasting paper and all that, but Mom and Dad were never ones for giving up on hope and people, and neither am I.’_ ” This wrested a small laugh from Galo. He continued on, “ _‘I’m sending you some pictures along with this letter too, so that if these ever do reach you, you can add them to the ones we sent before.’_ ” This made Galo swivel his head to the boxes on the floor stuffed with letters, mulling over the possibility of each letter containing a picture or two. “We’re gonna need a big photo album to hold all these.”

Lio looked at Galo incredulously as the same notion went through his head. “Love, we’re going to need _several_ photo albums if most of these letters have even one picture in them,” he commented, jotting down a small reminder on a stray notepad they kept on the coffee table to pick up photo albums on their next run to the drugstore. 

“ _‘The first photo is of all of us from our last Christmas holiday together. Since this past year was our busiest year yet between all of us, I’m honestly surprised that we were all able to have a Christmas together, though it goes without saying that we wish you were here with us.’_ ” Galo swallowed thickly, feeling Lio hold him a bit tighter as he pressed on. “ _‘Don’t mind the resting bitch faces from Dad and Creteus,’_ ” Lio let out a quick laugh along with Galo, “ _‘They were never ones for photos. Thank god we took after Mom with being somewhat photogenic. As per usual, all of our names and ages are on the back of the photo so you don’t lose track of who was how old.’_ ” Galo quickly turned over the picture to see the names and ages scribbled on the back of the film, taking note that all of the younger men were barely older than him. “ _‘Since this year was the last year we were gonna have some of the foster kids with us, Mom and Dad took them to the Nutcracker Ballet that was playing in Bozeman while we, I mean Horatio, Tim—’_ Time-Tima…” Galo broke off again, tilting the page back towards Lio.

“Timaeus.” Lio corrected.

“ _‘Timaeus, and I decorated and got the whole house ready for our annual Christmas party. Hermos and Creteus can’t decorate to save their freakin’ lives so we sent them into town to pick up the food and guests. That’s actually the second photo I’m sending you.’_ ” Galo briefly stopped to set the first picture down, the next one featuring the graceful elderly woman again but this time accompanied by a small group of children ranging from what looked to be six or seven to kids that were definitely teenagers. The picture was clearly taken inside a barn as all the children were gathered around a stall,peering at what appeared to be a very young foal with a jet-black coat standing next to its mother. “ _‘One of our horses, Lady the paint horse, gave birth early to her colt so Mom wanted to show the kids what the cutie looked like. Priscilla, the little girl that’s wearing the purple shirt,’_ ” Galo gave Lio the picture to study as he continued on, “ _‘said that since the foal was born during Christmas, it should have a Christmas name. So the kids named him Star-Frost, and oh boy, were they really happy about that! Sometimes I still find it hard to believe that most of the kids are coming from families that didn’t want to deal with them, because they smile so easily now.’_ ”

This made Galo pause, the gears in his head churning as he re-read that last sentence. “The hell? Why would families just get rid of their kids like that?! That’s just so wrong!” Galo exclaimed, indignant. 

“People like that are usually wrong to begin with, love.” Lio answered with straight honesty, eyes still studying the picture in his hands with the utmost scrutiny. “Why do you think that when we were still Mad Burnish we took in children? A lot of them were cast out by their own families for being Burnish.”

Galo looked down at Lio, frowning at his pinched face. “What’s wrong? You actually look like you’re about to hurt yourself from overthinking.”

“No. It’s just that I believe I’ve seen some of these kids before.” Lio pointed to some of the faces, glancing back up to Galo to ask, “Does your letter say where this was taken?”

“Hang on.” Galo skimmed through the letter until he found his answer and resumed his narration. “ _‘The winters here in Montana can last for a very long time and while I know Mom loves to see Whitefish covered in snow and winter decorations, she has often said that she loves it when spring comes back around because it’s Dad’s favorite season.’_ ” Galo’s gaze turned back to Lio. “Know anything about Montana? Cuz I know absolute zip about it.”

“Yes, I do actually.” Lio eyed the picture again, pointing out each of the kids that looked undoubtedly familiar. “When I took over as the leader of Mad Burnish, Meis and Guiera had mentioned that there was a safe haven somewhere in the north where any Burnish passing through wouldn’t be scrutinized. Some of the locals actually opened their homes to the Burnish to be used as safe houses, and a lot of the younger Burnish were taken in by the families through a local adoption agency.” Lio shifted his position as he placed the second picture down next to the first. “That was one of the places we would send some of our people to if they generally didn’t feel safe staying close to Mad Burnish or Promepolis.”

Galo slowly absorbed this information, starting to put two and two together. “So then, that means my family were one of the people taking in the Burnish?” 

Lio watched Galo’s expression shift as the rest of his thoughts came together. “It certainly looks like it.” Lio acceded.

A smile slowly spread Galo’s lips, threatening to strain his cheeks with just how wide it was. “So then that means they’re heroes in their own right too!” He cheered elatedly, bouncing in place and causing the cushions beneath him to squeak. “The Great Galo Thymos comes from a family of heroes!”

“Okay, settle down, O Great One.” Lio playfully snarked, wrapping his arms around his love again, partially to prevent him from jumping off the couch and possibly trip over their coffee table, and partially to just hug him close. Galo radiated infectious energy like an over-energized sun. “How about you finish reading the rest of the letter before you take off into the streets?”

“Huh?” Galo eloquently questioned before he realized he still had a page and a half left of the letter along with one more unknown picture. “Oh right! Oops.” He laughed it off with a modest scratch of his cheek, resuming the last segment of the letter. “ _‘As much as Dad loves springtime because it apparently reminds him of his childhood days back in Hokkaido, I have to admit I hate the spring cleaning that comes with it. Considering how Mom has certain practices for cleaning in general, spring cleaning at our house is always off the charts, but at least the house smells decent with the mixture of lavender and sage flowing through the air; which leads me to the last picture that I’m sending you. I know you would appreciate this one.’_ ” Galo pulled the last picture from behind the letter and shuffled to the last page, freezing up as his brain caught up to what exactly the picture was about.

Lio felt Galo go stiff in his arms as he looked at the last picture and he looked up in concern. Galo made no movement at all even as his eyes watered, and his mouth moved silently as if he were trying to speak but nothing would come out. With growing worry, Lio leaned over to see the picture that made Galo grow so still. The scene he was met with stole Lio’s breath away.

A toddler Galo, (he couldn’t have been older than two), with his cheeks pink and chubby and his signature mane just a spattering of spiked hair, wearing a red onsie and a baby bird bib, was reaching out towards whoever took the picture, his sapphire eyes alit with wonder. A beautiful dark-haired woman was holding him close, one of Galo’s tiny hands clutching a fistful of her thick waves as she pressed their cheeks together. Her arms were full of the chubby toddler as she gave her biggest and brightest smile, showing off all her teeth towards the camera, as a handsome man with short blue spiky hair and gentle smile of his own held both of them close.

These had to be Galo’s parents, Lio noted. All of their features, he could see them in Galo. His father’s hair, his facial structure, and his build, they all spoke of Japanese blood, while his mother’s eyes, her lightly tanned skin, and her smile were mirrored perfectly in Galo’s own.

Lio knew Galo wouldn’t be able to finish the letter on his own, not with the way he stared at the photo as though it would disappear if he were to take his eyes off of it. This was his first piece to having his parents back.

Lio gingerly rescued the letter from Galo’s hand, who let it go without any resistance, opting instead to cradle the photo with both of his hands. Lio resumed where Galo left off, “ _‘We found this photo while we were cleaning out some stuff from the attic. It was Mom’s idea to make a copy for you to have, since we never figured out what was actually saved from the fire. It still hurts us that Amara and Isamu, your parents, are gone, but I know it hurts Mom and Dad even more. For Mom because she lost her child, our sister, and for Dad because we lost you. You were his little buddy, his little shadow.’_ ” Lio paused to check on Galo. Tears had spilled from Galo’s overbright eyes, a couple of tears trailing down his cheeks, but he leaned on Lio’s shoulder resolutely to read along with him. At the focused look on Galo’s face, Lio moved on to finish reading the letter. “ _‘Again, I don’t know if this letter will reach you, we still don’t know if any of our other letters have reached you at all; but if it does, please know that we are still waiting for you, and that even if you have a home in Promepolis, you can have another home here, with us. We miss you. We miss our baby brother. With love always, your brother Lucius Thymos-Red Snow.’_ ”

As Lio read the final words of the letter Galo curled in on himself, bringing his photo close to his chest as tears streamed down his face in fat droplets. Lio didn’t know what else he could do to comfort his grieving love other than wrapping his arms around Galo’s shoulders to hug him close.

Galo wasted no time in returning his affection, hugging the smaller male close with a tight but gentle grip and drawing him into his lap so he could hide his face in the crook of Lio’s shoulder. 

Lio, on the other hand, didn’t need to see Galo to know he was crying as he felt the trembling in his shoulders and heard the quiet sniffles into his shirt. He circled his arms around Galo’s neck as Galo continued to clutch him firmly, tears still falling but now morphing into a weird mixture of sorrow and relief. Lio’s heart hurt whenever Galo was stricken by emotions like these, so far outside his usual bright, loud, warm cheerfulness, and he wanted nothing more than to take it all away and bring back his smile.

They stayed in each other’s embrace, letting the comfort roll off the other in synchronization, until Galo began to run his hand up and down Lio’s back in a quiet signal that it was okay to let go. Lio drew back as Galo wiped away the remnants of his tears, eyes bloodshot from the strain. “Thanks, and sorry for crying on you again.” Galo apologized, his voice rough and sore from crying.

“It’s alright Galo. I’ve said it before: you need not ever ask for my help.” Lio broke their embrace to hand over the letter, only to stop when he noticed more writing under the sign-off. “Galo, there’s more under the name.”

Galo gently took the letter back to read it. “ _‘P.S. My phone broke when I was out helping the neighbors with their cattle. Word of advice, never turn your back on an Angus cow, they can get really mean. Here’s my new number. Please call us. XXX-XXX-XXXX.’_ ”

Galo and Lio could only look at each other in silenced shock. Galo reviewed, re-reviewed, and reviewed yet again the letter to make sure he had read that right. If so, it meant that there was still a way to get in touch with Galo’s family! Galo could finally have his answers. 

Lio noticed the hesitant look on Galo’s face. “What’s wrong? I would think that you’d be jumping for joy and shouting from the rooftops about this.”

Galo could only shake his head. “I am. It’s just…it’s a stupid thought, really.” He hesitated, thumbing the ink of the number nervously.

“There’s no stupid thought, not when it comes to concerns. You taught me that.” Lio refuted, offering a small smile to break the worry in the air. “Now what’s really wrong?”

Galo gave a world-weary sigh before confessing, “I’m scared. You heard the letter. They weren’t sure if I was getting the letters or just not reading them. What if they think I didn’t care enough about them to answer their letters and they don’t want anything to do with me?”

“Then we explain to them why you never received their letters.” Lio reasoned with him. “Even they said so themselves that they miss you very much. They want you back in their lives, Galo, and just listening to what this Lucius guy wrote, it doesn’t sound like these are people that wouldn’t listen to reason.”

Hopefulness entered Galo’s expression again, and yet a tiny sliver of hesitation stuck, so Lio continued. “If it helps any, the people that have helped the Burnish any way they could were already heroes to us. From what I’ve heard from the others when I was leading Mad Burnish, your family had already made quite a name for themselves, so in hindsight, you were right earlier. They _are_ heroes.” This brought the light back full force in Galo’s eyes, his smile almost blinding. “So why not reunite our hero with his family of heroes?”

Galo nodded in agreement, conviction sweeping him up with a renewed burst of energy. Slackening his hold on Lio’s waist so Lio could leave his lap—giggling at the kiss Lio dropped on the bridge of his nose in the process—he watched Lio exit the room to retrieve their phones from their bedroom, taking a few minutes longer than expected. When Lio came back, his blonde hair was once again neat and he was now donning a loose white shirt and dark jeans. He handed Galo his phone and took his place next to him.

Galo took a few calming breaths as he looked at the number on the letter and dialed it into his phone. The line rang once, twice, and then, on the third ring, clicked to life with a questioning, “Hello?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

_Yes, let this be a sign!_

_Let this road be mine!_

_Let it lead me to my past_

_And bring me home..._

_At last!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw [Foxy Joy's Baby Galo](https://twitter.com/Foxy_joy_/status/1186718002563244033?s=19) and I couldn't help but fall in love with him. They did him so perfectly!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	5. If I can Learn to Do It

_Was I wild?_

_Wrote the book!_

_But you'd behave when your father gave that look!_

_Imagine how it was!_

_Your long-forgotten past!_

_We've lots and lots to teach you and the time is going fast!_

_All right... I'm ready!_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

Galo hummed brightly as he laid out each of the truck’s hoses. He and the team had just come back from a call—a small one thankfully. An open fire pit had flared out of control, and putting it out was relatively easy in the scope of their usual work. It was his turn to make sure all of the water was drained from the hoses, while Remi showed Meis how he checked and logged all the gauge readings for the consumption reports, and Varys led Guiera around the fire truck to make sure all miscellaneous gear was stowed properly. Usually, the hoses were reserved as a rookie job, but no job was too big, small, or seemingly menial for the Great Galo Thymos.

He finished walking the lines and was about to roll up one of them when Lio came up to the engine, several water bottles in his arms. As he tossed a bottle to Galo, he caught wind of the little tune Galo was humming. “Someone’s in a chipper mood today. Get lucky last night?” He playfully teased.

Galo caught the bottle with practiced ease and twisted it open, the refreshing liquid soothing on his dry throat. “I don’t know about luck, babe, but I’m just bein’ happy with having an awesome day!” Galo answered genuinely, words touched with a bit of a laugh. “The sun’s out and it’s a nice day, we just got done with a call with no issues, and the best part is I’m here at Burning Rescue with everyone. My Burning Soul says that today is gonna be awesome!” Galo whooped as he put aside the water bottle, swooped down to place a peck onto Lio’s cheek, and rolled the hose into a tight wheel.

Lio could only shake his head, chuckling as he smoothed a hand over the area where Galo kissed him and handed out water bottles to the rest of the team on the truck. Varys and Guiera gave Lio a quick thanks as they took their water bottles while Meis and Remi came down from the cab. “Thanks, Boss,” Meis offered as he took a swig of his water. “Wasn’t expectin’ it to be this warm today.” The former Kei artist mentioned as he held the cool bottle to the back of his neck, trying to relieve the heat his dark hair had collected.

“Welcome to the seasons of Promepolis.” Remi retorted, the slight snideness in his tone matching the slight red in his cheeks. “Where spring means summer and summer means hot as all hell.” He took a long drink of his water.

“Well, the heat’s not affecting them.” Varys pointed his thumb to where Guiera was approaching Galo as he put away one reel and grabbed the next hose from the truck, the redhead loudly declaring that he could finish this job faster than Galo. “I know Galo can take it cuz he grew up in here, but how the hell does Guiera still have energy in this freaking heat?”

“Guiera mentioned a while back that he was from the Bush before he moved to Miami, so I’d figure he’s used to the heat,” Meis explained as he took another sip from his water, watching as his husband continued to egg Galo on by trying to yank the hose reel away, only for it to make Guiera sink with the dead weight of the reel in his arms. This brought a stifled laugh out of Meis.

“I honestly think Guiera is one of those people that converts heat into energy and pairing him with Galo during the summer is going to be hell on the rest of us,” Lio remarked as Galo reprimanded Guiera for trying to handle the reel while it was still coiled up, but it didn’t stop the enthusiastic smile on his face as Galo began to show Guiera how to properly do the hose checks.

“In all honesty, I’d rather take Galo and all of his puppy energy then have him down in the dumps,” Varys said as he drained the last of his water. “His liveliness is so contagious, it affects the lot of us in some way or another.”

“I’ve noticed his attitude has been improving,” Remi commented to Lio as he downed the last of his water, “I guess those nightly phone calls have been helping him out, huh?”

“Yes. They have.” A fond look crossed Lio’s features. “In more ways than one.”

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~ Three weeks ago ~_

Galo took a few calming breaths as he looked at the number on the letter and dialed it into his phone. The line rang once, twice, and then, on the third ring, clicked to life with a questioning, “Hello?”

“Hi _ah—_ ,” Galo answered, swallowing spit he nearly choked on as he cleared his throat, trying his best to not stammer as anxiety kicked in. “I’m looking for Lucius Thymos-Red Snow.” His eyes darted towards Lio nervously, who responded by slipping his hand into Galo’s free one.

The line went quiet for a few seconds until an exasperated exhale crackled across the phone, followed by a voice that Galo would describe as charming if it weren’t for the irritation held in it. “ _Haah_. You find him. Look, if this is another telemarketer, I’m not interested in buying or applying for whatever new loans—”

“No–no! It’s nothing like that,” Galo hastily interjected, “My name is Galo Thymos, and I’ve been getting letters from your family for apparently years now and this number was attached to the most recent one.”

If it wasn’t for the loud clattering in the background, something heavy being dropped onto something solid, Galo would’ve thought the line went dead from the unnerving silence that greeted Galo’s ears. “Hello?”

“...Kid…” The voice, Lucius, spoke. Slow, short and decisive, the following words carried out like the very threat they were, “If you think this is your idea of fun, prank calling grieving family members claiming to be their lost relative, then I swear to God and the Spirits above that I will track you down and—”

“I’m the real thing! Honest!” Galo hurried out, already fearing the imaginary threat carried over the phone as he unintentionally pulled his hand away from Lio, moving about in a worried fashion. “Look, my name is Galo Myoujou Thymos. I was born in Promepolis on July 7 XXX8 at Promepolis Mercy Hospital to Isamu and Amara Thymos.”

The line stayed quiet for a few seconds more before, “Okay then, answer me this one question. You said you got our letters. What was in the last letter we sent?” The question was rushed, as if the caller was either anxious or excited to hear the answer.

Galo blinked at the phone before he reached over and grabbed the mentioned papers from the coffee table. “Ah, well, there’s the letter itself. It’s about three pages long. It’s got really good handwriting on it, by the way,” he complimented off-handedly, “and it came with three pictures. A Christmas photo, another photo with a baby horse and the kids, and—” He paused, breathing deep as he felt tears prickle his eyes at just the thought of the last photo, before he resumed steadily. “And the last photo is of my parents with me. I think I was about two years old in that picture, maybe.” A stray tear escaped down Galo’s face, only for it to be gently brushed away by Lio.

Galo gave Lio a grateful smile before he noticed that the line went quiet again, only this time, it stayed quiet longer than before. Galo checked his phone screen to make sure the call was still active before he brought it back to his ear. “Hello, you still there?” Galo called out.

The call remained quiet for a split second more before excited shouting and cheering broke through. The loud and sudden noise caught Galo, and Lio, completely by surprise to the point Galo nearly dropped his phone, the device jumping through his hands before he finally caught it with a firm grip. Rushing wind and clattering objects carried over the line, as though Lucius was running somewhere, followed by what sounded like a heavy door being yanked open before, “Mama! _Chichi_! You’re not gonna believe this! It’s Galo!”

More shuffling and a pair of voices, a man and woman, could be heard overlapping through the phone before Lucius broke through. “Hang on…” His voice sounded distant before he spoke again, “Galo, can your phone do video calls?”

“Yeah,” Galo answered, “Why?”

“I’m gonna call you back!” Lucius spoke in a rush of words, call ending with an audible click.

Galo barely had enough time to pull the phone away from his ear when his usual ringtone of a Japanese orchestra played through their apartment, the screen showcasing an incoming video call. He froze at the sight of the notification, wrestling with a sudden bout of nervousness at the idea that he was finally going to get to meet his family, _now_ , even if it was through the phone. He looked to Lio for a quick moment of encouragement, the smaller man beaming a solid smile and reassuring nod back to him, inhaled deep, squared his shoulders, and tapped the screen to accept the call.

The black screen dissolved to show three unfamiliar, and yet familiar, faces staring back at him in equal shock and awe. It looked as though they had shifted to a bigger screen as each of their profiles, as well as some of their kitchen behind them, were all easily in frame. Immediately, the mood shifted from shock to joy and wonder as the younger man with tanned skin and chin-length hair—Lucius—let out a whoop of victory, to which the rest of the family followed with a series of cheers in two different languages. One Galo knew was Japanese and the other he couldn’t place, although it sounded very familiar.

Lucius must have dropped whatever they were using as the screen because the next thing he knew Galo was looking at was at a ceiling with the lights shining down onto the screen. Thankfully, he didn’t have to look at them for very long as the screen moved again but this time, the older woman was holding it, staring at Galo with tears in her eyes and a bright smile on her face. “Oh, Galo honey…” She spoke, the motherly tone in her warm voice faltering as the tears spilled from her dark chocolate eyes. “You’ve grown up, huh?”

“Ahh,” Galo eloquently answered, clearing his throat awkwardly. “Yeah, I guess I have.” Trying as much as he could to recall anywhere in his memory of him knowing this woman, he could think of nothing; but god was she ever-familiar. Even the familiarity of the memory itself, of her, was on the tip of his tongue. He could feel it...just right _there..._ but got nothing. “I’m sorry. This is gonna sound bad, but I have to ask,” this was going to hurt, he knew it was going to hurt as he took a deep breath, “Who are you?”

A pin could’ve dropped in the room and it would still be too loud as the elder woman went quiet and all the emotion drained from her face. Another face, this time an older man with dark chin-length hair that was greying at his temples and almond eyes leaned in and shifted the screen a bit. “Galo, do you not remember us?” His accented voice was steady but questioning.

He could only shake his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t.” He answered, unable to meet their eyes. He scratched at the back of his neck, hoping to relieve some of the tension and troubled sensations bubbling up in his chest. “My memories have been, more or less, shot over the years. There’s not a lot of stuff I can remember before I was like eight or nine.”

“Hmm…” The man studied him. “It coincides with when the fire occurred. The trauma you witnessed that night must have impacted your mental state and sealed away your memories.”

“Ah, yeah actually.” Galo agreed, a little blown away by the quick deduction. “That’s pretty much what the therapist said when I was younger.”

“Well, what about our letters and packages then?” Lucius chimed in the background. “Did they ever make it through? Surely they must have helped somehow.”

“Ahh, that’s another thing.” Galo cringed, tapping the camera option on his phone to switch cameras and show the boxes of unopened letters and packages that he and Lio just went through. “I just received all of them yesterday. I didn’t even know I had letters coming over the years.”

All three sets of eyes grew wide as they took in the unopened letters. They remained stunned from what Galo just explained to them until Lucius spoke, “Well…” His eyes went half-mast and his voice sarcastic. “Now we know what happened to our letters.”

“Wait, you mentioned you received them yesterday. From whom?” the elder man questioned.

“From the police,” Galo answered. “They were handed over as evidence from Ms. Biar Colossus. She was Mr. Foresight’s secretary.”

This made the woman perk up as the man asked narrowly, “Foresight? As in Kray Foresight?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Galo confirmed.

Absolute dark fury took over the woman’s face as she pulled her lips back into a snarl, her eyes wild in an angered frenzy. “Kray Foresight? That bastard?! **Again?! DOES THAT MAN EVER STOP TAMPERING WITH THE LIVES OF OTHERS?!** ” She finished with a growl that grew louder with each word until it sounded like thunder.

Galo didn’t think he would ever see anyone get mad as Lio did when they faced Foresight, (hell, that’s an understatement), but he was proven wrong as the feral look on her face scared the absolute crap out of him and her male companions too if them jumping a bit was anything to go by. Lio must have seen the way he reacted because the next thing he knew, Lio popped his head into his call. “Ma’am, if it’s of any consolation, the bastard Foresight,” Lio snarled the name with equal venom, before resuming his best tone of politeness, “is currently under arrest and awaiting trial for multiple charges. We have been briefed that he won’t be getting out for a long time.”

The woman’s face changed easily from dour to confused as she took in the new face. “Well, that’s…news, I suppose.” She took a breath to collect herself. “And, may I ask, who are you?”

Galo struggled to keep up with the awesome speed this woman changed moods, and he passed his phone over quietly as Lio took over the conversation.

“My name is Lio Fotia, ma’am. I’m Galo’s boyfriend.” Lio answered easily as he bowed his head in greeting, ignoring the bright shade of pink dusting Galo’s cheeks. “May I ask for your name and the names of your companions?”

“Oh, such politeness,” she answered, the motherly tone once again flowing in her voice. “And here I thought chivalry died out with my sons.” She finished with a warm smile as Lucius let out a pouting, “Hey!” The other man simply chuckled. “Well, we are starting from scratch, huh?” she asked rhetorically. “My name is Adoette Thymos-Red Snow and I’m Galo’s grandmother. Call me Grandmama.”

“Hideyoshi Thymos-Red Snow.” The older man offered with a formal bow, letting his Japanese heritage show. “I am Galo’s grandfather and that title will suffice for now.”

“…Jiji…” The nickname slipped out Galo’s mouth with no restraint, much to everyone’s surprise and amazement. It spooked Galo a little bit as well with how easily his body seemed to remember when his mind was filled with such strong blank spaces, and he covered his mouth in shock.

“Well, it looks like we’re not starting from scratch, huh, my love?” Adoette amended, her eyes glistening as she shifted her gaze to her husband.

“It appears not, _Anata_.” Hideyoshi nodded in return.

“Good to know that some things haven’t changed after all, right _Oyaji_?” Lucius teased, a teasing smile splitting the young man’s features as he nudged Hideyoshi’s shoulder, who did not look happy at the title Lucius just called him.

Just as randomly, another name came into Galo’s mind as Lucius spoke, and before he could stop himself, “You’re Luci aren’t you? Didn’t we call you Lulu?”

Lucius's face quickly fell as a loud bark came from Adoette before she broke out into the loudest, warmest, and most contagious laughter Galo’s ever heard, and god did that ever sound familiar. It even brought another chuckle out of Hideyoshi as Lucius pulled a face that could have rivaled Galo’s indignant face. “Oh come on! Of all the names you had to remember…” Lucius sulked as he turned his head away to pout.

As Adoette took breaks between her laughs to try to breathe regularly, she took the chance to clear her throat. “Well Luci here—” She reached up to lightly pinch her son’s cheek, who in return let out a small groan. “Is Lucius Hikaru Thymos-Red Snow, your older brother, but also the youngest of the boys.”

“Right…okay, I have a couple of questions,” Galo replied as he looked to each one of them. “If you two are my grandparents, how is Luci,” the name earning another miffed “Hey!” out of the mentioned, “my brother? And did you say the youngest? How many more are there?”

Adoette and Hideyoshi looked to each other, a silent conversation playing out between them, ending with Hideyoshi giving a nod as Adoette turned back to address Galo through the screen. “I think we should start at the very beginning, Galo.”

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

From there, Galo was given the whole history of who and what made up his family.

Of how his Grandmama Adoette was technically his great-aunt who raised his mother as her own after the First World Burn took the lives of the rest of their family—Adoette’s parents and her sisters, the eldest being his mother’s birth mother.

Of how his Grandmama, a military veteran, and his _Jiji_ , a dual swordsman from Japan, met while serving together on a specialized unit, and after being together for three years, got married and started their own family back in the States.

Of how, since he was born only three years younger than Lucius, the baby of his Grandmama’s sons, it was decided that he would grow up alongside the boys as brothers instead of uncles.

Of how when they received word that his Mom and Dad died in a fire that was caused by a Burnish outburst, it broke their hearts. His paternal grandfather still kept in touch with them through the last few months of his life and had been finalizing custody paperwork for Galo to live with them when he, unfortunately, passed on and the paperwork was supposedly lost. And, of how when they tried to locate him after he was placed into the city’s foster care, they were met with every roadblock and stonewall that could be placed in front of them.

Galo remembered the vicious look that overcame both Lucius and his _Jiji_ ’s eyes as Grandmama recalled those events. Like, a far more crucial piece was purposefully being left out of what was being told, but Galo felt he had no right to question it; at least, not yet.

After that first call, Galo called almost every night to ask them about anything and everything he could think of, much to his Grandmama’s delight and his _Jiji_ ’s contentment.

From what his heritage was, (he already knew about his Japanese blood but it threw him for a loop when he found out he had Native American heritage in him), and what his brothers were like, (he still couldn’t believe that he had brothers!), to finally getting answers on some questions that had long bothered him, (like why the hell he couldn’t take medication like cough medicine or hospital-grade painkillers without getting really bad side effects, which turned out to be due to some genetics on his mom’s side).

Even Lio joined him on those calls here and there to ask Grandmama questions of his own, (she insisted that Lio call her Grandmama too), and to interject on several conversation points with _Jiji_ , (Galo was the only one allowed to call him that, everyone else addressed him as Akayuki-san or Mr. Thymos-Red Snow).

As great as it was finding out about his family and rebuilding their relationship, it frustrated Galo to no end that he still wasn’t able to remember anything. Despite talking with Grandmama, _Jiji_ , and even Lucius, it still felt like he was missing a huge part of his early life as he kept coming up with blanks whenever they talked and reminisced about the past. So after a week of frustration and yanking out his hair trying to remember, Galo talked it over with Lio and Ignis and decided to seek help on getting his memories back.

Ignis truly meant it when he said Burning Rescue was a family, and he referred Galo to an old military buddy who was a therapist in the city specialized in PTSD and trauma recovery. He was also pleasantly surprised when he received nothing but warmth and support when he brought up to Remi that he would be changing shifts to accommodate his new appointment times over the next couple of weeks.

Varys and Aina would take turns driving him to and from his appointments and being his support as it was recommended for Galo not to drive by himself to and from the sessions, given that memory recovery could and would completely drain him both mentally and physically.

Remi would let Galo hide out in his office, as per a previous arrangement, if he needed to get away from the roaring of the firehouse to process whatever decided to come back into his memory at that moment, with Vinny doing his best as a part-time support animal, rubbing and cuddling against any open space along Galo’s cheek and neck.

Lucia would help keep Galo busy and entertained with his bouts of endless energy by asking for his help in modifying the Matoi Tech and the rest of Burning Rescue’s gear.

Lio continued to be a steadfast support as he would make himself available to Galo if he ever needed to talk, to cuddle, or to just be close to him as Lio worked, and whenever Lio couldn’t make himself available, Guiera and Meis would gladly fill in. Guiera would goad Galo into another round of Mario Kart and Meis would offer to make some of his comfort food.

Galo couldn’t help but think that, if by some twisted hand of fate, he were to wake up to find that all he had experienced was to be a dream, Galo prayed he would never wake up.

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~ Present Day ~_

Thanks to the therapy sessions, Galo noticed that within the few weeks of attending, some of his memories were slowly coming back to him. Small and steady as they were, they seemed to be giving him his second wind as he finished rolling up the reel, letting the last of the water drain out before letting the reel lean up against his leg as he caught his breath. With practiced ease, he hefted the rolled up hose reel onto his shoulder, letting out a small, “Oomph,” which did not go unnoticed by Guiera.

“Ya got it, mate? Is The Great Thymos havin’ a wobbly with the reel?” Guiera asked teasingly, letting his Aussie accent slip out as he readied his arms to catch either Galo or the reel if one of them decided to tip over.

“Oh, you’re a real riot, ya jerk.” Galo tossed back, with as much sarcasm as he could muster, even though the shit-eating grin never really left his face. “Now move it, before I decide to drop this reel back on you.”

Guiera stuck out his tongue in retaliation, making Galo laugh as he started towards the back of the fire engine, the reel blocking his line of vision from the right and effectively blocking the sidewalk where the tail of the fire engine stuck out from the garage. He needed to find the right place to put the reel back without having to worry about it slipping out of its spot—

_**“GALO MYOUJOU THYMOS!!”** _

Galo jumped at the familiar deep voice calling out his full name. It was still a bit of a shock that anyone, aside from Lio of course, knew his full name. The last time he had someone call out his full name was his paternal grandfather before he passed on, but that was way back from when he was a kid, and damn it if it didn’t make him feel like a kid that got caught sneaking into the cookie jar again.

But that was all erased when he whipped his head towards whoever called his name to see the familiar faces of Hideyoshi, Adoette, and Lucius Thymos-Red Snow standing along with one new face staring back at him in a stunned response. His entire body went slack with shock, one hand dropping his hold from the fire hose reel but the other holding it steady, making the bulking equipment serve as his anchor lest he wanted his knees to give out from underneath him too.

It was one thing to talk to them, see them over the phone, but to see them in person...oh, it was something unreal.

He could also see the tears, happy and elated tears, that were beginning to swell up in his grandmother, (grandmother! He still couldn’t believe that he has a grandmother!), eyes as she covered her mouth with her hands, as if she was trying to hold on to whatever breath she had left. The others, (his grandfather! And his brothers! His family!!), also showed a mixture of elatedness, shock, and awe. 

He understood the overwhelming feelings that were overflowing from his grandmother’s heart and threatened to spill out from her eyes all too well as his own eyes were starting to sting, making his vision blurry. He felt his mouth open and close, trying to form words, any words that could explain what he was feeling, before he managed a broken, “Grandmama?” as hot tears began to stream down his face.

At that word, the flood gates broke and everything went into motion again, his grandmother running for him. He didn’t even have time to process what was happening as he dropped the hose reel from his shoulders and sprinted to meet the group, bodies colliding with each other halfway, arms quickly entangled with each other as he gathered the elder woman in his arms lovingly, letting her soft and solid body sink into his as he lowered his head into the crook of her shoulders. He could smell her perfume, lavender and roses, as she clung onto him with a desperation that matched his.

Oh, did it smell ever so familiar! Like another long lost memory or dream slowly coming back to him.

He felt more arms press around them, gathering him and his grandmother into a group hug. Only when he felt her lean back a bit did he pull away from her shoulder, looking down to fully see her finely aged features as she brought one of her hands up to cradle his face. Her dark chocolate eyes scanned over all of his features as he reviewed her features similarly. 

Seeing her in person made all the difference as he took in the shape of her eyes, the slants of her cheekbones, the thick hair held back in a loose braid, and even the familiar headband; they were all reminiscent of his mother, and by the heavens if that didn’t make her all the more beautiful to him.

He couldn’t help as more tears began to flood his eyes. “You look so much like Mom! It’s unreal!”

“And you look so much like her, and your father,” Adoette replied. Despite the tears that were running down her face, her smile never seemed brighter. “Our beautiful baby boy…”

He didn’t think he could tear up anymore, but he was proven wrong as he felt more tears come to his eyes. He cried with every feeling he had left in him, including a well of sorrow that flooded him as Galo dropped back into Adoette’s hug. “I’m sorry...I’m _so_ sorry I forgot everyone... _I’m so sorry I’m an idiot and forgot_!” Galo continued to cry into her shoulder, anguish wracking through his shoulders and making him shudder as he rubbed his face into her shirt.

Adoette hugged Galo closer as another bigger hand rubbed at his back, the familiar motion calming him down bit by bit until Galo no longer shook with each rattling breath he took. “You’re not an idiot, my love. You went through something terrible, something that no child should ever go through, and all by yourself, for that matter. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Your grandmother is right, Galo.” Galo lifted his face from his grandmother’s shoulder to meet his grandfather’s steady gaze, his dark hazel eyes never wavering. “What has transpired has already been forgiven. You need not blame yourself for something that was out of your control.”

“We are just so happy to have you back in our lives.” Adoette finished, bringing up one hand to cradle Galo’s face again but this time, his larger hand clasped over hers to hold it close. “That’s all we ever wanted, to have our family complete again, so no more of this talk about you being an idiot, okay?”

Galo said nothing as he tried to let his grandparents’ affirmations sink in, letting them calm the tidal waves of sorrow he felt in his body and reignite his Burning Soul with love. Feeling the swell of emotion rise up greater than ever, he donned the biggest smile he could think of, fighting against the drying tracks of tears. “Okay. I gotcha. No more.” He nodded against her warm and steady hand. “And that’s all I ever wanted too. To have a family again—ahh, well another family now, I guess.” Still holding onto Adoette’s hand, Galo turned to face his team, who were probably figuring out who exactly these people were that shouted out his name, to give proper introductions.

What he didn’t anticipate was everyone, even Ignis, and Remi, gathered near the entrance of the firehouse, with tears steadily coming down everyone’s faces. Well, okay, it was mostly Guiera and Lucia who were bawling their eyes out, but there was not a single dry eye in the whole station as Aina passed around a tissue box after grabbing one for herself. Varys was the first to grab a handful as he gave Galo a thumbs up and a firm smile, silent tears streaming down his eyes.

Meis was next in grabbing a handful of tissues, handing a few sheets to his crying husband. “It’s okay, hun. Let it all out.” Meis consoled Guiera as he wiped some of his tears, a small smile on his own face.

“LEAVE ME ALONE, MAN! THIS IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!” Guiera anguished at the top of his lungs, his cheeks quickly becoming the same shade as his hair as he snatched up the offered tissues. “WHY DIDN’T ANY OF YOU COMEDIANS WARN ME THIS WAS GONNA HAPPEN?! I’M A SUCKER FOR THIS KINDA SHIT!”

“How d’you think I feel, ya bastard?!” Lucia bemoaned in equal measure, gratefully taking the tissue Vinny held out for her. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry over sappy shit but dang it, you all made me do it!” she said as she blew into her tissue, the trumpeting of her nose making Vinny plug his ears close. “There goes my reputation for being a bad bitch…”

“What reputation, Lucia?” Aina interjected, dabbing the corners of her eyes. “Besides, no one is going to blame you for crying, because we’re all doing it.”

Remi lifted his glasses to pinch at the bridge of his nose, blinking away any tears before he stepped towards Galo and cleared his throat. “Not to spoil this good mood Galo, but I think it’s best if we were to move this inside.”

“I would like to add that four-eyes is right.” The new face, Hermos, Galo recognized, mentioned as he stuck his thumb out to indicate the slowly growing crowd in front of the fire station. “We’re pickin’ up a bit of a crowd here.”

Galo heard Remi let out an indignant sniff, “Four-eyes?” as he wearily eyed the crowd. As much as he wanted to cheerfully yell out at the top of his lungs that his family came to visit, he knew that now wasn’t the time.

He gently placed his hand on Adoette’s back to lead her into the firehouse, with the rest of the entourage following right behind them. No sooner did he lead them into the firehouse did Galo feel Hermos loop an arm around his shoulders to bring him close, ruffling his fohawk and giving him a noogie. “Jeezus, look at you bud! You sure ain’t the little pup of the pack anymore, that’s for sure.” His playful tone gave his voice a boyish charm.

Galo threw his weight a bit playfully as Lucius clapped him on the shoulders. “I told you he’d be around your height with Horatio’s build. You owe me those thirty bucks.” Lucius teasingly pointed towards his brother.

“I don’t owe you jack shit, baby bro. We never shook on it.” The brunette retorted back easily with a snark that could have matched Lucia’s.

“Really. That’s what you’re going with.” Lucius droned, hitting his brother with a deadpan look. “You gave your word and that’s a legal bind in itself, dear brother,” he mocked.

“Oh really, whatcha gonna do about it?” Hermos snarked right back, arms out like he was ready to pounce.

Before any of them could continue their lovely sibling argument, Hideyoshi cleared his throat and gave each of the boys a pointed look that snapped them both to attention. The look was enough to make even Galo snap attention.

Lio couldn’t help but chuckle as his boyfriend stood at attention. His laugh shifted Adoette’s attention from her family to him. “And you must be Lio Fotia.” She affectionately concluded, all the love of a mother within her eyes.

What caught Lio off guard was how warm Adoette was, in both her attitude and her voice. It really should come as no surprise to Lio that the warmness Galo seemed to constantly emit was both hereditary and learned. “Yes I am, ma’am.” He bowed his head politely, lifting it up as he felt a hand on his shoulder pull him into a light hug.

“Thank you for taking care of our boy.” She whispered gently. “My family and I can’t thank you enough for finding him.” 

Lio felt stunned as Adoette continued to hug him with all of the tenderness and love she could give. He’s been thanked before in the past, hell, he’s received every emotion that one could get with expressed gratitude, from mockery to sincerity, but he never recalled one where it felt this deep, this genuine.

He returned the hug as best as he could, the sensation of it reminding Lio of his own mother and her hugs, and while he knew nothing could ever take her place in his heart, he had a feeling that this woman could almost match.

The tender moment was abruptly cut off when a loud grumble ripped through the air, making Lio and almost everyone else in the room jump. Aina immediately threw a pointed look at Galo with hands on her hips. “Galo!” she chided.

“It wasn’t me this time!” He immediately threw his hands up to wave off the look. “I’m hungry, but not that much yet.”

“Ahh,” A small hand went up. “That was me.” Adoette sheepishly interjected, breaking away from the hug. “I didn’t get a chance to eat this morning.”

“Mom, why didn’t you eat? I offered you half of my bagel too.” Hermos questioned concernedly.

“Oh, I’m fine, sweetheart.” Adoette waved her hand as though to wave off the statement. “I was too excited for today, that’s all.”

“You also did not eat last night for that same reason.” Hideyoshi expressed with his arms crossed.

Both Hermos and Lucius looked at each other with worry before turning their attention towards their mother. “Mama!”

“Again, honey, I’m fine.” Adoette answered back with raised eyebrows, continuing with a dash of sarcasm, “I’m old, but not _**that**_ old.”

Remi turned over his wrist to look at his watch. “Lunch _is_ in about an hour or so. You all are more than welcome to stay here and join us,” he offered.

“We do not wish to impose on anyone,” Hideyoshi politely refused.

“Yeah, don’t you guys have to be on duty all the time?” Lucius inquired.

“You’re not imposing on anyone,” Galo denied, excitement bleeding through as he turned to Ignis and prompted, “And Ignis usually doesn’t have a problem with families visiting the station, right Cap?”

Ignis stepped forward to approach the family. “What Galo said is true. While we have a duty to be on call and be ready at a moment’s notice, we also have a duty to our own people and their needs. To reiterate my Lieutenant, all of you are more than welcome to join us for lunch, but the choice remains yours.” Ignis finished with a knowing smile. Galo looked ready to jump out of his skin in anticipation of his family’s answer.

“I’m cool with it,” answered Hermos.

“Yeah I’m down.” Lucius agreed. “Mom? _Chichi_?” He directed towards Adoette and Hideyoshi.

Adoette looked to her husband, who in turn gave a silent nod with a smile on his face. She turned her attention back to Ignis to ask as she grinned, “Well, how can we say no to an invite like that?” She chuckled. “So what’s for lunch then?”

She got her answer in the form of Galo tackling her into a hug.

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it_

_Something in you knows it_

_There's nothing to it!_

_Follow in my footsteps, shoe by shoe!_

_You can learn to do it too!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by [@Nishiboys](https://twitter.com/NishiuraBoys/status/1266964730389958661?s=19)
> 
> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	6. You can Learn to Do It

_Count Anatoly_

_Had a...?_

_Wart!_

_Count Sergei_

_Wore a feathered hat_

_I hear he's gotten very fat_

_And I recall his yellow cat!_

_I don't believe we told her that..._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

Laughter filled the private lounge room as Adoette regaled Hermos and Galo with fond memories to pass the time as they were waiting on their food, alone now that the rest of Burning Rescue had left the family in peace to bond with their golden boy. Hideyoshi and Lucius had stepped out to grab some things from their rental vehicle. “It’s true! You loved that movie so much, when you and the boys would play dress up, you would take your grandfather’s thickest coat and wrap it around your tiny body. You would then come find either myself or your mum and say, ‘Mama is me, Anastasia!’ and drop it with a great, big _swish_! Oh you were so cute all smothered in that big coat.” Adoette gushed, putting on a cutesy tone as she lightly pinched Galo's cheeks.

“Ahh Grandmama! No pinching." Galo giggled as he feigned the pain from the light touch. He grabbed her hand in a gentle grip, both to keep it away from his cheeks and to simply hold it. "I vaguely remember something like being wrapped up in a big coat that was really warm. Did _Jiji_ ever get mad that I would take his coat?” Galo questioned, recalling someone gathering up in the large coat to jostle him.

“Mad? Honey, he would encourage you." Adoette answered, a fond look overcoming her features as she recollected her own memories. " _Jiji_ would encourage every one of you boys to act out your wildest imaginations. I’ve caught y’all time aplenty playing ‘Samurai and Cowboys’ or ‘Slay the _Oni_ ’ in the living room or the yard. _Haa,_ I can still hear the laughter like it was yesterday.”

"Slay the _Oni_?" Galo questioned, scratching his head at the familiar word.

"Yeah. It was a game we came up with after _'Tousan_ told us a couple of stories about the _Oni_ and _Youkai_ from back when he was a kid." Hermos explained, "Usually we would get Horatio or Creteus to play the _Oni_ since they were older, but sometimes Dad or Souten- _Oji_ and Raiden- _Oji_ would play the _Oni_ and we would chase them around with make-believe weapons 'til they were slain."

A look of concentration painted itself on Galo's face as he scrunched his nose and scratched at his head again. "I think I vaguely remember that. I do remember hitting someone with something very heavy. I think I said I killed them?" He trailed off uncertainly.

Hermos bursted out laughing at this. He continued to laugh and laugh until he had to clutch at his sides and tears crinkled his eyes. Between breaths he replied, "Oh GOD—!" while he laughed, "He remembers-—!" and laughed, "I can't even—!" and laughed some more until he broke down into wheezing and coughing.

Adoette joined in with her own snicker, both at the memory and at her son who was growing more red by the minute. "That actually happened when you were about four years old and the boys were collectively between seven and fourteen. You were playing 'Slay the _Oni'_ ironically, on Christmas morning and Horatio was the _Oni_ this time, and everyone had him pinned on the ground." She moved her hands to depict the movement of said pinning. "You grabbed one of the longer presents, I guess you thought it was a sweater or something, because when you hit Horatio on the head with it, all we heard was a great _THWACK_ and next thing we know, we see Horatio clutching at his head. Turns out, it was the replacement skillet I had gotten your parents." She paused as she barked out another laugh. "You were so terrified after that, you came running into the kitchen crying and that you killed 'Tio."

"What happened to Horatio?" Lucius asked, hearing his mother laugh, opening the door as he and Hideyoshi walked back into the room. 

"Oh nothing. Just recalling the little accident he had with Galo and what happens when you give a toddler a pan to wield." Adoette answered as Hideyoshi shrugged off a medium-size dark leather pack and handed it to his wife with care. Giving a grateful smile to her husband in return, she took the pack and deftly opened the flap to pull out a thick photo album. 

The album showed its age in the worn material of its cover and the ease of the squeaky bind as Adoette began to flip through the gossamer pages until she found what she was looking for, slipping the picture out of it's protective sleeve. She handed the picture to Galo as Hermos and Lucius gathered around him to also reminisce, sensing Hideyoshi taking a seat right next to her as she felt the dip in the couch.

Unbeknownst to the family, a small group had gathered outside the closed door, watching as Galo excitedly took in the photo, his brothers erupting into more laughter.

“This is sooo weird.” Aina first broke through, peeking up to look at the loving family that surrounded Galo. "Like, really cool, but really weird."

“You’re telling me." Lucia shot back, her own head peeking up along with Aina. Vinny was perched on top of Lucia, sporting his own pair of binoculars to take in the view. "I’m happy Galo has his family and all, but I’m gonna be that bitch and say that they are nothing alike.”

“That’s not true." Aina quickly defended. "Look, Galo and his grandma have the same eyes, not to mention they both have the same loud laugh...” She trailed off.

“They look the same, yes," Lucia replied back, "But trait-wise, ehhhh I’m gonna go with them scraping at the bottom of the barrel for blood ties really.”

“Lucia, really?”

“Hey, I said I was gonna be that bitch...”

"Who's the bitch now?" Meis interjected as he and Guiera came around the corner.

"What are ya guys doin' anyway?" Guiera asked, noticing how the girls were crouched beneath the window of the door. "Ya tryin' to be James Bond or somethin'?"

"Yes we are!" Lucia confirmed enthusiastically with an evil giggle, making her sound like the mad scientist she already was. Vinny played his part as he held up his paws in a trigger motion. "And our new mission is to figure out how Galo is related to his family."

This caught Guiera's attention and he joined the girls in hiding beneath the glass pane, catching glimpses of Galo looking over his grandmother’s shoulders at the photo album in her lap. 

Meis followed behind his husband, except he opted to lean his body against the doorframe while still maintaining cover. "That leaves an open-ended debate. Family doesn't necessarily mean you have to share blood ties. Family can be found amongst the right people and certain circumstances. I mean look at us with the Boss." He pointed to himself and Guiera. 

"And I totally support that." Aina chimed in. "But I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Galo's family is actually here."

"And I was just sayin' that I'm having a really hard time trying to find the link between Galo and the rest of his family." Lucia brought the conversation back full circle.

That's when Guiera snuck another glance at the close knit family as Hermos ruffled Galo's hair again. “Not gonna lie, I think Lucia’s right." He nonchalantly replied.

This earned him a gratified look from Lucia and one of exasperation from Aina. Meis simply glanced at him and asked, "Why do you say that, love?"

Guiera brought up a hand to scratch at the back of his head. "Ah well, Galo kept sayin’ how hyped he was finding out that he’s got brothers and stuff, and I figured that of course there's gonna be some differences between them, like different noses and stuff, but I didn’t think they'd so…” he gestured towards Hermos and Lucius.

“Tall, cute, about as chaotic as you?” Lucia supplied flippantly, giving him her signature smile.

“...I was gonna go with ‘different’ but that works too.” Guiera and Lucia gave each other a high five of solidarity. Guiera looked up to see what his husband thought and he caught the quiet and pensive look Meis was sporting. It was a look he rarely saw, the last time being when they were playing as detainees for the Burnish prison breakout. “What’s wrong, babe?”

The former Texan shook his head in response. “I feel like we’ve seen those two from someplace before…” He trailed off.

Guiera looked back into the room to see Lucius enthusiastically pointing to the photo album in his mother's lap, making the elderly woman chuckle. This prompted the formal male next to her to relax a bit more into the couch, letting his much bigger frame come in close to his wife. "Who? The guys, or Galo's grandparents?

"Galo's grandparents. Like I should know them and it's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember for the life of me right now." Meis replied in a very serious tone, the brow of his eyes scrunching up in thought. 

“Maybe we heard something in passin' from the others? Didn't Boss say that they were one of the families that would help the Burnish in the North?” Guiera asked.

“Yeah, he did," Meis concurred, voicing his train of thought as he slipped back along the frame to hide his figure, "And that's what's bothering me 'cuz I know we've heard of them when we're the leaders. Families just helping the Burnish alone would have been talked about amongst the others, but I think they did more than help.”

“Don't know, love." Guiera replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Your guess is good as mine.”

“Hmmm….” Meis trailed off in thought.

“Can I say that for Galo’s grandfather, I was not expecting someone that intense.” Aina tossed out, watching as Galo's grandmother handed him the photo album to flip through the pages.

This threw the little group for a bit of a loop at the sudden change of topic. “Well, what were you expecting then Aina?” Meis questioned, not quite understanding his friend's perspective.

“Hmm," She thought out loud as she brought a finger to her chin. "I guess I had pictured somebody that… well, looks like a grandfather."

"What's wrong with Galo's grandfather?" Guiera questioned as the group turned their collective eyes to the solemn elder who had his arms crossed and eyes closed. A true picture definition of calm and cool.

"Nothing's wrong. I just had a very different image in my head when Galo said he had grandparents." Aina looked away as she began to describe her own very old grandfather from memory. "I pictured someone definitely older, a little more talkative, cheery—”

“Not glaring at us.” Lucia interjected calmly.

“Definitely not glaring at—huh?!” Aina was jolted out of her talk as she spun around to look back into the room, finding that the elder man was definitely sending a hard stare towards the door, like he could see and pierce right through it.

Catching the supposed glare sent a shiver down everyone's spine as they all ducked out of sight. “Oh wow, that was scary!” Aina replied in a high whisper as she tried to get her heart rate under control, keeping her back against the smooth plane of the door.

“Okay, I take it back." Lucia deadpanned as she rubbed at her eyes. "He’s definitely Galo’s grandfather. They’ve got matching scowls.”

No one had time to react as the door swung open and both Aina and Lucia fell back into the room, their new line of view the ceiling and Adoette smiling down on them. “You are more than welcome to join us, instead of lurking about in the hallway.” She kindly offered along with her hand.

Lucia was the first to reach for her hand. “So much for being stealthy.” She deadpanned, her eyes popped a bit at the woman’s surprising strength as she felt her body be pulled to her feet with quick ease. Vinny mirrored the same amount of shock as he took cover in Lucia's lab pocket on her chest. 

“Ma’am, how DID you know we were there?” Aina asked curiously as she sat upright. Propped up on one knee, Aina looked up to see the same hand reaching out to her and she took it. 

“Love, I’m retired military and a proud mama of five boys." Adoette replied as she easily lifted the rescue pilot to her feet. "Do you really think I haven’t picked up a few tricks over the years?”

They heard more shuffling from behind Adoette before Lucius’s head popped out from behind her. "And also cuz Dad was staring at the door like it was about to burst into flames or something." His brother choked back a laugh at that.

"Hey guys! What are you doing hiding behind the door?" Galo asked cheerfully as he got up to join Adoette by her side.

"Oh ya know, just hangin' around..." Lucia casually said, rolling on the heels of her boots.

"Yeah, more like spyin' and gatherin' intel." Guiera snarked as he eased up onto his feet as he entered the room with Meis following right behind him, the quiet man bowing his head in acknowledgement to Adoette who returned it in kind.

"Sorry about that Galo." Meis offered with a kind smile. "Didn't mean to interrupt your family time."

"No way man. It's fine really. Actually, I'm glad all of you dropped in." Galo smiled as he accepted the apology with a pun of his own and moved to stand beside Guiera and Meis. "Everyone, I want to introduce some of my team. This is Aina Ardebit, the best pilot and aeronautical engineer and firefighter I know." He gestured to the redhead.

Aina gave a small wave of her own. "Nice to meet all of you. You have no idea how much Galo's been talking about this."

Galo beamed at Aina before he continued on. "The small mad gremlin next to her is Lucia Fex. She's feisty and knows anything and everything about robotics and tech. She's the one that made my Matoi Tech come to life!" 

"Hey now, that's mad gremlin _scientist_. Thank you very much." Lucia crossed her arms with a confident grin.

This brought a collective laugh out of the family and Galo as he continued down the line to the last two. "And finally, these fine gentlemen are—"

"Former Mad Burnish General Meis and Guiera. Your names have preceded you." Hideyoshi smoothly cut in as sat up with his back straight, arms still crossed.

A slight chill went through the pair as they could only think of all the past fights they both had endured during their time as Mad Burnish. It was ironic—usually the looks that Hideyoshi was giving the pair wouldn't faze them for anything, but now it felt as though they were being stared down or scrutinized by an animal most would stay away from, like a wolf. 

"All good things I promise," Adoette interceded, breaking up the slight tenseness in the air. "All the Burnish that passed through our small town have talked about the leaders of Mad Burnish and how they've helped them escape."

Both Meis and Guiera let out the breath they were holding. "It's a pleasure to meet y'all as well." Meis acknowledged.

"Yo!" Guiera greeted in his own way. "Honestly, we should be thankin' you and your family for your support with the Burnish. I know it ain't easy supporting refugees that are basically runaways."

"We're just happy to provide something for them." Adoette spoke, slipping a hand into her husband's crossed arms. His much larger hand engulfed hers with delicate care. "Even if it was a temporary home."

"It's still a home that you and your family provided and for that Mad Burnish will always be grateful." A new voice flowed into the room. Meis and Guiera turned to see Lio carrying several boxes of pizza. "From what I've heard from other former Burnish, your family and several others went above and beyond to help the Burnish."

"We did only what we thought was the best." Hideyoshi replied. "For others and for our family."

"And that alone was more than enough for us." Lio responded in kind as he walked into the room, Remi and Varys following in behind him with several pizza boxes of their own. 

Everyone eagerly helped to place the boxes all across the table so that everyone would have an equal share in the food. Soon all of the nearby chairs and couches were pulled close to the coffee table that held their food.

"Oh sweet, the pizza from Pop's place." Galo exclaimed as he claimed a couple of the boxes for his own and his family. "You guys have to try Pop's pizza. It is THE best pizza in all of Promepolis. I promise!" 

"I believe you honey." Adoette laughed as she grabbed one of the proffered boxes. "It's a good thing then we generally like pizza."

"Mom, you like any kind of food." Hermos chirped as he made a grab for a slice. He got an elbow nudge from Lucius for the remark.

"And that's a bad thing, how?" Adoette causally threw back with a deadpan look as she grabbed her own slice, blowing on it to relieve some of the heat.

"Do not be rude to your mother, Hayato." Hideyoshi scolded lightly as he grabbed a slice and began to eat. 

Hermos gave a feigned look of hurt in response before he heard his mother answer.

"It's alright, my love. I can handle a few jibes, especially from my own darling, cute, baby boy!" Adoette reached behind Galo to pinch at her son's cheek.

"Ah, Ma! Not the cheek! Not the cheek!" Hermos squeaked as he jumped up from the couch to avoid his mother's pinching fingers, moving to sit on the adjacent couch with Lucius. "You know I love you, Ma."

"Love you too, my baby." Adoette answered sweetly before closing her eyes, pausing briefly, and then biting into her first slice of pizza.

The room went quiet for a couple of seconds as everyone began to dig into their own pizza. As someone once said, if there was quiet at the dinner table, you knew the food was good.

It was actually Hideyoshi who first broke the silence. " _Anata ga tadashiidesu, Garo. Kore wa ii_." (You're right, Galo. This is good.)

The smile that broke loose on Galo's face could have easily powered the station's lights with how bright it was. " _Arigatou, Jiji. Ore wa anata ga shounin shite ureshiidesu._ " (Thank you, Grandpa. I'm glad you approve.)

Hideyoshi gave a hum of approval as he and Galo resumed their eating. It wasn't long until Galo felt the needle-like stares being aimed at him, the prickling sensations picking at him. He turned to see that almost everyone in Burning Rescue, save for Lio and Remi who were still eating, was staring at him in a mix of shock and disbelief, like he just suddenly grew an extra eye in his forehead. "Wha issh ii?" Galo asked around the slice of pizza in his mouth. 

"Dude, what was that?" Guiera asked in disbelief.

"What was what?" Galo cocked his head to the side after he downed the rest of the slice.

"That!" Lucia emphasized as she pointed at Galo. "Since when do you speak Japanese?"

"Since for a while now?" Galo answered, question heavy in his tone as his teammate's shock seemed to completely go over his head. "My dad and Grandpa, my dad's dad, taught me when I was younger and I've been picking it back up ever since I reached back out to Grandmama and _Jiji_." Galo finished with a nonchalant shrug, reaching for another slice.

"With tremendous results. Your accent is improving greatly." Hideyoshi offered with a slight hint of pride in his voice.

This brought another smile out of Galo before he chomped down on another slice. He turned his head back when he heard Varys ask him, "So how come you never told us you could speak another language?"

"You never asked and I never had a need to use it here yet." Galo shrugged. "Ignis and Remi know it from my profile and so does Lio. It's not like I was purposely trying to hide it."

"Wait-wait-wait a minute." Aina held up her hand in confusion, turning it around so she could use her fingers to tick off. "So you're an EMT, you built your first Matoi on your own, you're trained in Fire-and-Rescue, and you're bilingual in a language that's pretty rare on this side of the water...so how come you act like you have one brain cell?"

Galo gave Aina a look of mock hurt as the others choked back a laugh. "Hey!" He dramatically placed a hand over his heart. "I'm hurt! Everything that I do, I do with the ferocity of my Burning Soul!"

"Still doesn't explain why you act like you're running off of one brain cell." Aina volleyed the statement back easily.

"And I use that one brain cell to love my friends." Galo responded, bright smile steadfastly on his face.

A cackle broke out in the room as Lucia had tears beginning to gather in her eyes. "G, man! You're killing me!"

"Oh god pup!" Lucius and Hermos laughed out loud.

This only egged Galo even more. "So long as my soul burns bright, I WILL be the greatest firefighter that ever lived. That's my motto: balls to the wall!" He emphasized his declaration by slamming his fist into his hand.

The room erupted into more laughter. "Love, we talked about your wording." Lio said with exasperation even though his expression was fully fond as he spoke.

"And with your grandparents in the room too." Aina could only shake her head as she pinched the bridge between her eyes.

Adoette was laughing as well when she cleared her throat. "Oh, love. I used to work with Sailors and Marines back when I was your age. I've heard a lot worse stuff."

Hideyoshi said nothing as a small smirk made its way onto his features.

"Oh yeah! You said you used to be in the military, huh Grandmama?" Galo redirected.

"Yes, I was." Adoette said with a bit of pride in her voice. "Was a computer and radio tech back in the Navy and served with a lot of good men and women."

"Oooh, that's hella cool!" Lucia perked up when she heard computer tech. "How long were you in?"

Adoette couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm. "I was in active duty for twelve years, then retired when I decided to have a family. Got in roughly, oh about," she paused for a minute to recollect her thoughts, "six years before the first World Burn and I've been hitting the ground running ever since."

"So then you must have seen some action before the Burn, huh? Were you in any kind of battles or going to war and stuff?" Guiera asked innocently.

Just as easily as Adoette painted a smile on her face did her mood change. A faraway look crossed her dark eyes as her smile dropped, the light in her eyes shifting into a sad gleam. 

Everyone in the room had recognized the look she had in her eyes. She had the same face and look in her eyes they had seen on Galo, Lio, and even on the different people they had engaged with in the past. It was the look of someone that had just witnessed a war and didn't walk away unscathed.

Lucius and Hermos didn't miss the sudden mood shift in their mother and neither did Hideyoshi as he felt Adoette's spirit sink a bit, uncrossing his arms to bring his wife close to his larger frame. "You do not have to answer that, _Anata_."

A sad smile tugged at her lips as Adoette turned to her husband, her eyes wet with tears. "It's alright. They deserve to know." She took a deep and calming breath before she turned her attention back to the others. "Yes. I was part of something like that. I was on the USS Cargney Hall when the World Burn happened."

The mood in the room quickly sunk as everyone reeled back in shock at this new information.

Varys was the first to break the silence and all he could say was, "Oh wow…"

Remi removed his glasses to pinch at his nose, taking in a deep breath of his own.

The girls shared a downcast look, Lucia rubbing at the back of her neck as Vinny sat on her shoulder with his head bowed and his tiny firecap placed over where his heart was.

The boys sat in the stillness of it all as Galo and Lio both shared a knowing look. 

A brave hand went up as the owner attached to it asked. "Ah, 'scuse me?" Guiera asked.

All eyes went to him as he brazenly said, "This is gunna sound bad, but what exactly happened on the USS Cargney Hall?"

Almost everyone went slack-jawed as Meis looked at his husband with a certain rage. "How do you not remember this from back in school? They went over this countless times!"

"Oi man!" Guiera quickly defended himself, his cheeks flushing in chagrin. "History was never my strongest suit, and by the time I came over, I was already in high school and had missed a lot of American history."

This threw Meis back a bit. In all honesty, he shouldn't be getting mad at his husband for this, because he went through the same thing when he moved back to the States with his mother. All he could do was give out a long, drawn out sigh. "You're not at fault for not knowing any better but still…" Meis finished as he ran a hand through his long hair.

Ignis was the one to answer Guiera, striding into the lounge. "The USS Cargney Hall was a destroyer-class naval ship that was deployed to the Middle East as part of a squadron. They were the only ship out on the water at that time when the first World Burn happened, and out of a crew of three hundred and thirty-five men and women onboard, only forty returned home alive." He finished as he came to a stop before the coffee table.

Adoette gave a small nod in return. "Yes, and almost forty years to the date, they're only half of us left." Her voice was steady as she lifted her head to meet Ignis's stare. "Not many people know the statistics anymore." She remarked, the tone in her voice challenging Ignis as to why he knew this.

Ignis met it with a smirk of his own as he removed his sunglasses to look Adoette in the eyes, cerulean clashing with russet. "Of course. It was drilled into our heads when I went through Chief season when I was still in. It's an honor to meet you, Chief Crazy Wolf." 

Adoette's eyes widened in surprise as Ignis extended his hand in respect. A grateful smile returned to her face as she accepted the handshake with her own firm grip. "Hmph. That's a name I haven't heard for quite some time now, but thank you. It's always heartwarming for me to meet another Brother that came after."

Ignis's smirk never left his face as they dropped the handshake, his sunglasses finding their way back on with no problem.

"Wait, Crazy Wolf?" Aina questioned, breaking the somber air.

Adoette gave a small chuckle. "It was a nickname that followed me around when I was younger and then I used it as my tag name during my time as a sailor. I've thought about using something different but by that time, I’d gotten really used to it."

"But why Crazy Wolf, Grandmama?" Galo questioned.

"Oh," She laughed, like it was the simplest of things. "It was because I was really protective of my friends and family growing up so I was always getting into fights with bullies." The look in her eyes took on something feral. Her smile had just a little more _teeth_. "You know what they say, don't come between a mama wolf and her cubs, unless you're ready to see her teeth."

Meis eyes seemed to bug almost completely out of their sockets as the realization dawned on him. "Holy shit, I remember now!" He inadvertently yelled, making everyone jump.

Guiera was the first to startle, not used to Meis being the loud one unless he really needed to be. "Remember what, Meis?"

Meis whipped his head back so fast, Guiera thought he must have given himself whip-lash. "These two were the ones that took out that Freeze Force group years ago."

Guiera's eyebrows shot up and almost disappeared into his hairline from what Meis just uncovered. "No way," He gave a mixed look of awe and bewilderment at the elderly couple who were staring back at them with questioning looks of their own. "I thought that was just one of the stories to tell the kids at night." He began to frantically point the finger between them. "Ya know, to help fight off the boogey man and shit."

"What are you two wankers on about?" Lio questioned, not liking how their startled reaction caused him to drop his last slice.

"Boss! Remember how we told you about the Hidden Trail of Fire that ran to the North and led to a safe haven for Burnish?" Meis answered excitedly.

"Yes?" Lio assented, not quite understanding what his former general was trying to get at. "You told me about that when I took over."

"Well about ten, eleven years back, a Freeze Force platoon tracked some of the escaping Burnish to the North, followed them to one of the safe houses up there. These fuckers were armed to the teeth with every high-end anti-Burnish tech that bastard Foresight was putting on the streets. Freeze Guns, improved Ice Bullets, military-grade vests, the whole works, and they had planned to capture every Burnish they could find in those houses and anyone else that stood in their way was to be shot on sight. The first attack came when they fired at a small group of Burnish kids playing outside and one of the sons of the household was shot while protecting them."

Galo couldn't help but listen as Guiera continued to regale this particular tale. He snuck quick glances to his family to see that each one of their faces was deep and filled with remembrance, like they were seeing it happening all over. Galo slipped his hand to cover his Grandmama's hand, smiling a bit as she returned the hold before he turned his attention back to Meis’s storytelling.

"When the parents of the house witnessed their son get shot down with that Ice Bullet, they flew into a rage. With nothing but their own hands and weapons, they faced down the force of over fifty Freeze Force goons, easily cutting them down in droves. The kids that escaped that day said that it was like watching a pair of wolves taking down a pack of wild dogs. It was complete devastation. No Burnish were lost that day and Freeze Force never set foot in the North again, lest they incur the wrath of the Wolves of the North once again."

The room became still once again, each member of the BR looking at each other before they returned their gazes back to the Red Snow-Thymos clan. Adoette was the first to break the silence as she let out a deep breath, running a hand along the back of her neck. "It wasn't fifty men. It was about forty or so men that showed up at our door."

"But still," Aina continued as she leaned a bit from where she was sitting next to Meis and Remi, her voice awed. "To face down that many Freeze Force personnel and come out of it unscathed."

"We did not walk away unscathed and it's still a sensitive issue to talk about," Hideyoshi all-too-calmly answered, although the fire in his eyes did not go unnoticed. "So I suggest you drop it."

The way Hideyoshi said, it left no room for arguments. To Burning Rescue, it felt as though the order came from Ignis himself. 

Remi was the first to break the air. "Our apologies. We didn't mean to upset you in any form."

This time, Hermos was the one to answer. "It's cool." He offered with a sad smile. "Just something we're still trying to overcome. Ya' know, shades of the past haunting our future and all that jazz."

Lucius swiveled his head to throw his brother a very interesting look. "Ooohkay." He looked to his parents as he pointed his finger towards Hermos. "Are we sure the right triplet flew out with us, or did we get Timaeus in disguise of Hermos?" 

"De fuck does that you mean, ya little twerp?" Hermos said indignantly.

"Exactly what it means. Whether or not you're bright enough to understand it is a completely different matter." Lucuis replied a bit cheeky.

Hermos looked about to retaliate, mouth open and ready to spit out an argument, but he drew back, not taking the bait his brother had laid out for him. He centered himself with a few deep breaths before he turned his attention back on Galo. "Soooo, pup. There's a question everyone in the family has been dying to know." He stated, a Cheshire cat smile gleaming on his handsome face.

"Yeah, what's up?" Galo cocked his head in question, already sensing an inkling of suspicion as he saw Lucius's eyes widen a bit and a much similar smile grew on his face, like he already knew the question his brother was planning to ask Galo.

Hermos leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and keeping his head level atop his folded hands. "How did you and your beau meet?"

A lone eyebrow rose on Galo's face. "Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, it's something to do with our family history." Hermos explained. "Nothing bad, it's just to settle something. That's all."

"Oh, well okay." Galo acquiesced simply. He looked to Lio, who gave his consent in the form of a shrug. They were going to find out anyway. It would be best to get it over with quickly and nicely if they could. "I arrested Lio during a firefight."

"I let him win during a match." Lio amended swiftly.

Galo turned to his boyfriend with an exasperated look. "You did not!" He denied vehemently, "I beat you fair and square."

"Galo, love." Lio paused as he brought his hands together into a prayer fold, drawing a breath before he pointed his folded hands towards Galo. "I _let_ you arrest me, remember? We needed to get inside the camp for a prison break."

"Uh-yeah big guy." Guiera jumped in, "Boss had it planned specifically so we get caught and then do a jailbreak from the inside."

"Not the smartest of all our plans, but it worked." Meis commented with a shrug.

Galo threw the both of them a scandalized look before he turned back to Lio, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I totally had you on the ropes. Admit it!"

Galo could practically feel Lio's eyes roll as he casually threw back, "Oh, you had me on the ropes alright. If it meant being on the end of my sword and you knocked onto your ass." He finished with a sly smile.

Adoette's eyes went wide as she listened to the conversation. "Wait, what?" She asked.

" _Shimatta."_ Hideyoshi hissed quietly.

"Really, this shit again?!" Lucius expressed as his hand met his face in a facepalm.

Hermos began to laugh again, somewhat drowning out the ongoing bickering between the firefighters. "There's no escaping the family curse!" He wheezed, tears collecting on the corners of his eyes.

Nobody had time to respond to the impending chaos that was unleashed as Lio egged Galo with an ever familiar smirk and a crook of his finger. Galo lunged for the small blonde who gave his own laugh and easily slipped out from his boyfriend's grasping hold and began to run with Galo giving chase. 

Meis and Guiera decided to run interference as they planted themselves in between Galo and Lio, which in turn spurred Lucia and Aina into action. The gremlin scientist tackled Guiera with all the might she had in her tiny body and Vinny, always at the ready, launched himself into the wild bird's nest that was Guiera's flaming hair. Aina easily hefted Meis over her shoulder as he had made the mistake of believing the best course of action was to use his much taller frame as a roadblock. Galo had almost caught Lio in his arms when Varys offered a hand Lio and the former arsonist easily used it as a jump block to launch himself up to Varys's shoulder. Varys then gave his own shit-eating grin as he decided to mess with Galo even more and took off into the hallways, Lio still perched on his shoulder. 

Adoette and Hideyoshi could only watch in slight awe as the friendly chaos spewed out into the hallways, leaving their family, Ignis, and Remi in the sudden quiet of the room. Adoette turned her wide eyes to the Burning Rescue Captains. "Does—does that happen often?"

"Unfortunately yes." Remi replied, pushing up his glasses. "Something like this usually occurs once every shift."

"Our Myoujou’s energy is almost as abundant as your own, _Anata_.” Hideyoshi offered to his wife with a smile of his own. 

She returned his smile. “All of them are. It does my heart good that Galo’s found a family of his own here.”

Ignis let out a chuckle as he rolled his shoulders. “Couldn’t have said it any better, ma’am. At the very least they use their lack of impulse control for chaotic good instead of chaotic evil.”

This drew out another laugh from Adoette. “And I honestly wouldn’t have them any other way.” 

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_If you can learn to do it,_

_I can learn to do it!_

_Don't know how you knew it…_

_I simply knew it!_

_Suddenly I feel like someone new!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I saw [Foxy Joy's Baby Galo](https://twitter.com/Foxy_joy_/status/1256294869259227136?s=20) and I couldn't help but fall in love with him. They did him so perfectly!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!
> 
> Also if you recognize some of the quotes they are from[ Promare Propaganda's Tumblr](https://promarepropaganda.tumblr.com/). Go check them out!
> 
> For those who are curious  
>  _Oji_ \- Uncle  
>  _Oni_ \- Ogre  
>  _Youkai_ \- Demon


	7. When the World Stops Turning

_No one told me_

_I was going to find you_

_Unexpected_

_What you did to my heart..._

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

The lone sound of the clock ticking away on the wall was the only thing cutting through the quietness of the doctor's office. The office itself was furnished comfortably with soft couches, two cream colored armchairs, a coffee table littered with an assortment of magazines, and two tall bookshelves filled to the brim with a variety of topics, ranging from medicine and psychology to travel guides and narratives of heroes from all across time. 

But nothing in the room could calm the rising tide of anxiousness welling up inside Lio as he took his place on one of the loveseats. Past experiences and run-ins with the Freeze Force had made him very weary (to put it lightly) of anyone in the authoritarian field, especially doctors who claimed to have the best interest at heart for their patients but were really in it for making the most profit off of their patients’ ailments.

God bless Galo and the BR for being so patient with him, his generals, and many of the former Burnish who were also experiencing the same distrust towards anyone wearing a public service uniform, and helping them through the distrust as best they could while also repairing a broken city, displaced people, and shattered lives.

When Galo first brought Lio with him to talk to the therapist Ignis had recommended, he had to admit it: he was still uneasy visiting a doctor of any sort. But, if Ignis was the one to recommend them, the very least he could do was respect both Ignis and Galo's wishes to meet this one. 

Dr. Aubree Regina Ceelie was indeed a breath of fresh air with her genuine wisdom and gentle kindness when she welcomed both of the boys into her office for the first time. Her depth of experience was well-documented through the pictures that littered her walls, desk, and any small surface of her bookcase. One such picture that caught their eye was of a younger Ignis and Dr. Ceelie, both donned in digital cammies in front of a group of men and women holding up a sign, the lettering in big block letters, "JTF-MSH 4098 DEC X9 XXX8".

Doctor Ceelie had the patience of a saint as she helped them go over Galo's previous file from the therapist Galo saw after the fire, discussing the best course of action on how to help Galo recover his memories. She guided Galo through each mental hurdle that popped up and even helped talk him through the mental scars that were created by both that bastard Foresight and the fire that took away his parents. 

And while Galo was making good headway on breaking down the mental block of his memories, it felt as though they were coming to a standstill. Some memories were coming back just fine—like going fishing with his dad or visiting his mom during her night shift as an ER nurse—but a lot of his core memories were still locked under what felt like an immovable blanket of static. That's when the good doctor suggested Galo undergo a process called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, (or as she said it was more commonly called, EMDR), to help bypass the ‘static blanket’ and unearth those memories, as well as the root of the block in the first place.

Of course Galo jumped at the chance of getting to the bottom of all this, but Dr. Ceelie had warned him that EMDR would be both mentally and physically tasking as EMDR set the patient’s brain on the path of reprocessing these painful, hidden memories and feelings. Many were completely drained at the end of these sessions, and even after the session was complete, vivid memories or new revelations could come back to the patient at any given moment as their brain continued to reprocess so it was vital that Galo recorded these moments in any way he could, whether by writing them down or by doing a video or voice recording. That next day, Lio went with Galo to help pick out a durable voice recorder at a tech store. 

Unfortunately, it was also a process that had to be conducted in an one-on-one setting, so Lio couldn't do much more than wait for Galo's session to end in the doctor's waiting room.

A medium size travel mug appeared in his line of sight. "Here, love." Adoette offered him the mug. "I got you something."

"Oh." Lio blinked, not expecting the drink but gratefully taking it, feeling the warmth of it soothe his hands. "Thank you."

"No worries." She replied, just as warm, moving to the neighboring loveseat and taking the open spot next to her still-silent husband. Lio had honestly forgotten Galo's grandparents had offered to join them and bring them to Galo's appointment. Didn't help that Mr. Hideyoshi was naturally a very quiet man. "Careful though, it's still warm."

He gave her a nod as he blew on the escaping steam. A curious scent tickled his nose as he cooled his drink. Taking a careful sniff, he found that the drink wasn't coffee, but tea. One that held a scent that was very familiar but he couldn't remember the name. Once he took a cautious sip of the warm tea, the taste of lavender, lemongrass, and mint flooded his mouth, leaving a sense of calm and relaxation behind in its wake. "This is really good," Lio quietly proclaimed, turning towards the elder couple next to him. "Where did you get this tea? I don't recall any of the shops carrying this blend."

"Oh, they don't." Adoette answered with a knowing lilt to her words as she took a sip of her own. "This is one of my homemade blends. I usually have one or two travel bags on me whenever we travel. I can never bring myself to get my drinks from any other place. It never tastes the same."

Now this piqued Lio's interest. "You make your own tea blends?"

"Yes, I do," Adoette confirmed. "A lot of stuff I make for my family are from homemade recipes I learned growing up on the reservation or during my time overseas so when we," she gestured towards Hideyoshi who was drinking some of the same tea, "got together, I just started making it for more than one person." 

"That's actually pretty ingenious," Lio commented. His thoughts trailed back to when Meis first showed him how to sew and mend clothing while on the run and Guiera taught him how to make a campfire and survive off of cooked insects and wild game in case they were ever separated and their Promare were ever too weak to start anything. "Do you make your own recipes out of necessity or just for a healthier lifestyle?"

"Ah, it's actually a bit of both," Adoette answered a bit sheepishly, scratching at her cheek as she continued, "Have you ever noticed Galo not reacting well to certain medication? Or how quick he seems to bounce back after getting sick?"

"Actually, yes." Lio thought back to when Galo vehemently refused to take over-the-counter medication for a simple cold, and to the time he was administered a small dose of morphine when he dislocated his shoulder during a call and, not even five minutes later, was acting like he was extremely out of it. His words: the room was spinning and it felt like his legs were on fire. "I thought it was because he was allergic to something in the medicine. Or that his 'Burning Soul' was just fueling his immune system."

"It's something like that." Adoette explained, chuckling at the 'Burning Soul' bit. "Because my family is predominantly Crow, our bodies can't handle harsh medications or alcohol that most people would take for, say, like a cold or a fever. It's an actual genetic variant that's been passed down through the generations. Doesn't help that we grew up on virtually holistic remedies so our immune systems were built differently than the average person. More tolerant but we still can't take common medicine."

Lio felt his eyes go wide with this new information. All the little quirks Galo would do like adding extra honey to his hot drinks, the extra spices in his homemade dishes, the weariness when it came to buying certain medication, things that Galo would do that didn't make sense to Lio at first, started to fit together like a giant puzzle board. "So then, Galo quite literally _can't_ take medication because his system can't tolerate it, and even if he _does_ get sick, we can't give him anything?"

"Not necessarily." Hideyoshi clarified, "He can take medication but it would have to be naturally sourced or low dosage."

"So like children's medicine and chamomile?" Lio inquired, blinking a couple of times as he tried to process this.

"Yes, along with lavender, honey, echinacea, ginseng and the like," Adoette offered. "Most of the home remedies you can find nowadays are online and the ingredients come by easy enough in the market places. I can give you the list I made for Amara when she first had Galo."

"That…actually, that would be really helpful. Thank you, Mrs. Adoette." Lio replied, Galo's mother's name catching in his mind. "Can I ask you both a question?"

"What is it, love?" Adoette asked, Hideyoshi straightening his back against the cushion.

"What were Galo's parents like?" Lio asked curiously.

It was a question neither Adoette or Hideyoshi were expecting out of Lio, and Adoette responded with a question of her own. "Why do you ask?"

Lio could see the slight misting in her eyes. Losing one's child was something a parent would never overcome. "I was just curious if Galo was ever this," he made a show with his hand in swift movements, "energetic, or—"

"Or if he inherited something from one of his parents." Hideyoshi finished for him, a smile catching onto his features.

"Yes," Lio assented, firmly meeting their eyes.

Adoette gave him a sad smile as she pulled out the photo album from her bag. Flipping through the smooth pages, she paused at a section in the album before she handed it to Lio. 

He took the album with the utmost care as he turned it around to see the pictures properly. There were six photos per each page, and each photo showed the same little girl throughout her years. One showed a very chubby baby with wisps of dark hair crawling towards the camera, and another showed the little girl a bit older being lifted into the air by a much younger Adoette—she couldn't have been any older than than seventeen, her signature braid lifting up in the air. Another photo depicted the same version of Adoette in blue digital cammies, looking every bit of a sailor, with another woman, a little bit older and holding the same little girl from before. Lio could definitely tell the two girls in the photo were sisters, as they both had the same nose, same eyes, and same smile.

"Amara was originally born to my older sister, Nike." He heard Adoette say, looking up as she pointed to the girl standing next to her in the photo. "She came into our lives like a little godsend, and I fell in love with her almost everyday. She grew from a very happy and bubbly baby into a beautiful little girl right before my eyes, and everytime I was deployed, I'd beg my family to send constant updates on her. Every time I saw her, I saw snippets of her mother and father in her, in both the way she acted, her little quirks, her intelligence, and her smile."

"You knew her father too?" Lio asked.

"Oh yes." A reminiscent gleam shone within Adoette’s sad eyes. She flipped the page over to show another photo. This one displayed Adoette's sister holding baby Amara, standing next to someone who was not quite a boy but not quite a man either. His dimpled smile and cerulean blue eyes complemented his handsome Greek features tremendously. 

_Huh, so this is where Galo got his eyes from,_ Lio thought. 

"Her father was a childhood friend of ours growing up. An autistic boy by the name of Alastair Christoforakis. He was such a sweetheart. He had a very big heart and was very smart when it came to engineering and mechanics, but outside of that, he always struggled in school because of his autism. He absolutely loved my sister and Nike loved him with all her heart." Adoette paused to take a deep breath, collecting herself before she continued. "I was awarded custody of Amara when she was ten years old, after we almost lost our entire family to the World Burn. My parents, my sisters, Al—" Her voice broke, and she took another deep breath while pinching her eyes closed. When she looked back up, Lio could see the slight red growing around her irises. "I was still on the Cargney Hall when I got the call that they were all gone. I had an aunt and uncle who survived the Burn and they were able to give Amara a home until I got back." She cupped a hand over mouth, trying to prevent her sadness from spilling out but she couldn't help the few tears that slipped from her eyes.

That's when Hideyoshi wrapped a sturdy arm around his wife and pulled her close, Adoette tucking herself into his broad frame. He picked up the story from there. "I was introduced to Amara when she was about thirteen, when Adoette and I were courting. In all honesty, if Adoette had not mentioned prior that Amara wasn't her biological child, I would have thought they were truly mother and daughter. They were, in all senses of the word but blood."

"Ohh." Lio’s curiosity got the better of him as he turned his attention towards Hideyoshi. "So how did Amara react to you, more or less, dating her mother, Mr. Akayuki?"

"She hated me." Hideyoshi deadpanned.

This brought a short bark of laughter from Adoette as she lifted her head back up to her husband. "She did not hate you, my love."

He looked down at Adoette with an expression that Lio would have to label as indignant. " _Anata,_ she stomped on my foot and more or less threatened me. I do not think she had a good impression of me in our first meeting."

Adoette couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her, and, this time, Lio felt the warmth in it. "To be fair I didn't have a good impression of you either when we first met." She fit her palm along Hideyoshi's cheek, her thumb gently grazing along his cheekbones. "And yet, here we are, years later."

Hideyoshi said nothing, but the look in his eyes gleamed with the utmost devotion. He turned his head into her hand, his mustache tickling her skin as he placed a deep kiss into her palm.

Lio felt like he was intruding on a very intimate scene. He averted his eyes in hopes of cooling the heat growing along his cheeks. Well, at least it was very good to know that Galo's grandparents were still _very_ much in love with one another. Though what Adoette said about them not getting along at first sounded very familiar to him, but he'd have to ask another time. Lio cleared his throat. "So Amara didn't like you at first?" He directed the question to Hideyoshi. 

"That is correct." Hideyoshi answered as he lifted his head to meet Lio's gaze. "At first, she wanted nothing to do with me. She believed that I would steal Adoette away from her."

"But you didn't, I'd imagine."

"No, I did not." Hideyoshi looked at his wife again before turning back to Lio. "After we had some heart-to-heart talks and a few situations, Amara began to open up to me. She began to see me as a father figure and she reminded me of my own brother whom I lost in the World Burn."

"When we started to have the boys, Amara was so excited to become a big sister," Adoette jumped in, gesturing to the photo album in Lio's lap. Lio promptly flipped through the pages until he found pictures of a much older Amara, from the blooming age of fifteen to a beautiful woman in her twenties. Each of the photos varied from Amara tickling a baby boy's belly, to her helping feed a set of triplets and placing a bandaid on an older boy's cut, to finally chasing down another toddler who had what looked like a black pearl necklace in his tiny hands.

"She was so good with the boys. Anytime one of them got a small cut or a bruise from roughhousing, she was so quick in making them feel better. She wanted to be a nurse, like her birth mother, and she used to say, 'If I can't make my own family feel better, then what kind of nurse am I?'." Adoette paused again, another laugh escaping her. "If there’s one thing I'll always remember about Amara is that she had," Adoette waved her own hands to depict the emotion, "this _fire_ in her, to help others, to _care_ for others, and you could see it in her whenever she smiled her big smile." Adoette moved from Hideyoshi's side to come closer to Lio, kneeling next to him as she flipped through the pages herself. "We had no idea how much of that fire would be passed on until she married Isamu and had Galo." She stopped at a page where a man with spiky blue hair and a slightly older Amara were holding a very familiar blue-haired baby close, the smile on the baby's face almost outshining his mother's. "And now, every time Galo smiles, I see that fire of Amara’s in him, and I can't be thankful enough that he's back in our lives." Adoette finished as she wiped away a few tears from her eyes.

Lio couldn't think of anything to say to make this any better, but he had a feeling that speaking from the heart was the best course of action. "Galo is an enigma." He began, gathering as much courage as he could muster at the moment to speak to Galo's grandparents not only as Galo's friend, but also as someone who wanted to stay intimately close with Galo for the rest of his life. "He's loud, blunt, and doesn't have any self-preservation, but with that, he's the most kind, loyal, sweetest, and bravest man I have ever known in my life. You may already know this, but I was the leader of the Mad Burnish in its last year before the Promare left and, in that time, I had to fight Galo more than once, because I was hurting for myself and hurting for my people from what we had to endure from the Foresight Foundation, but somehow Galo looked beyond all of the prejudice, all the lies and hate, and saw people that genuinely needed help, saw me for who I was and was the first to reach out a hand to help, and all because he felt it within his Burning Soul to help others, because he didn't want others to go through what he did." He faced Adoette and Hideyoshi with all the fire he held within him. "I don't know what I did to ever deserve him in my life, but I hope you will continue to let me be by his side."

Both Adoette and Hideyoshi appeared very surprised when he finished what he needed to say. The growing silence between them that followed was beginning to make Lio internally doubt himself.

Not only did he reveal that he was the Mad Burnish leader, he also uncovered that he was the leader of a known arson terrorist group that had threatened to burn down all of Promepolis if he didn't get his way. Lio hoped and prayed that he didn't just screw up whatever chance of good standing he may have had with Galo's family. 

And, when Hideyoshi finally broke the silence, his words only served to make Lio even more nervous. "You say all this, bare out your sins and past wrongs and ask if we will let you continue to be with Galo, but let me ask you this," He leaned forward, his eyes aglow with a protective stare that sent a chill down Lio's spine. Now he knew what Meis and Guiera were talking about when they expressed their discomfort over being stared down by Hideyoshi. "If we were to deny your request, deny you from ever being with Galo because you admitted that, in all essence, you were a criminal, what would you do then?"

Each of Hideyoshi's words stabbed through Lio like a sword, and while he felt himself falter with each line, he knew that he had to continue on otherwise he truly would not deserve Galo. "Then I will still continue to be by his side. I know that Galo deserves someone less rigged or someone that could give him everything he ever wanted, and all I can give him is myself." He lifted his head, his magenta eyes alight with a familiar fire. "But that's all he's ever asked of anyone, let alone me. He makes me want to be a better person for myself and for him, and I'm someone who helped light a fire within to burn even brighter, and if you're truly denying what we have, then I'm sorry. You're going to have to get used to it, because I'm not leaving him for anything. I love him and he loves me." Lio finished, his signature look of steadfast resoluteness crossing his arms and squaring his shoulders.

This did not faze Hideyoshi at all, if the smirk on his face were any indication. "That's what I wanted to hear." And, with that, Hideyoshi simply leaned back against the cushion again.

Not five seconds later, the door to the adjacent room clicked open, prompting everyone to rise to their feet. The first to step through the door was Galo, with his head down and his hoodie pulled up, pushing his signature fohawk down and to the side. Galo said nothing, the faraway look in his eyes scaring Lio a little as he walked up to him and hugged him close. He could feel Galo burying his nose into the top of his head and felt his chest rise and sink with every breath. 

"We managed to go a bit deeper than normal today. Galo did extremely well through all of it, but he'll most likely be out of it for a while." Dr. Ceelie moved into Lio's line of vision. The glistening vixen with dark highlights gave him a comforting smile, one that reminded Lio of a favored teacher in elementary school, as she relayed the after-treatment to him. "I recommend the same as last time. A comforting place for him to settle down, lots of self-care and rest. Keep at it with recording thoughts and memories that come up, and be sure that you _both_ eat something that's nutritious and comforting, like a familiar soup or dish." 

"Of course. Thank you for your help, Doctor." Lio acknowledged the best he could while still cocooned within Galo's arms.

She nodded back before greeting the two new faces standing beside Lio. "Oh, hello. I take it you're the grandparents Galo told me about?"

"Ah yes we are." Adoette dismissed hastily with somewhat of a smile. 

The doctor's deep blue eyes widened with realization, followed by a welcoming smile of her own. "Oh!" she exclaimed softly, "It's wonderful to finally meet you. I figured you were Galo's relatives. You and him have the same smiles."

This prompted another smile from Adoette that could be best described as both proud and shy. Hideyoshi displayed his own proud smile as he gathered his wife close to him.

"Well, I won't keep you all." Dr. Ceelie moved back to open the door exiting her office, letting the small group usher themselves out. "I'll send a confirmation email and text for the next appointment, which will be in two weeks,” she said as Lio helped guide the still quiet Galo through the door and out of the office.

"I'll be sure to pass along the details to Galo, once he 'wakes up' again." Lio answered, "Thanks again, Doctor."

Hideyoshi and Adoette also gave their thanks as they followed the boys out the door and out of the building. The brownstone's parking lot was around the back of the building, away from Promepolis traffic, and the group had no issue finding their rental car and piling in. Adoette took the driver's seat as Lio and Hideyoshi ushered the reticent Galo into the back seat. Lio was about to jump into the back with him when Hideyoshi put a gentle hand on his shoulder and directed him instead to take the passenger seat up front, Hideyoshi sitting in the back with Galo.

Once everyone took their seats and buckled in, Adoette turned around to look at Galo. "Galo, honey," she spoke gently to get his attention and blue eyes lazily met hers. "How are you feeling?"

It took a minute for him to actually speak, the words slipping out with slow drawl. "'m fine…tired…."

Lio turned his body around to look over his boyfriend. "Do you want to go to the lake again, or head home?"

Galo didn't hesitate with his answer as he yawned, "Home…sleepy…." He yawned again, fighting to keep his eyes open.

Hideyoshi reached a hand behind Galo, guiding his head to rest on the elder man's shoulder. The position he was in was not exactly ideal, his seat buckle digging into Galo’s shoulder, but he couldn't find it within himself to care.

"Looks like we're heading home." Lio told Adoette as he righted himself forward in his seat.

"You navigate and I steer, love." Adoette smiled as she turned the ignition.

They had no issues in the ten-minute drive back to the boys' apartment with Adoette's ever cautious driving and Lio's simple instructions. Galo was still fighting the seductive allure of sleep as he slumped against his grandfather's shoulder. 

Just as Galo was about to succumb to sleep’s heavy pull, the car came to a stop. At the movement’s cessation, Galo wearily blinked his eyes open and lifted his head to see the familiar complex of his apartment.

"We're here, love," Lio called softly, moving to unbuckle his seatbelt. Adoette stopped Lio by reaching over and placing her hand over his.

"Galo, would it be alright if I borrow your love for a bit?" Adoette asked.

Galo looked long and hard at his grandmother as best as he could with him still fighting sleep. "You're not gonna steal him, are you?"

This brought a small laugh out of her and Lio at the silliness of it. "No I'm not honey. We're just gonna pick up some stuff for tonight's dinner, okay?"

Another long, considering gaze from Galo. "I wanna go with." He pouted.

"I know you do love." Adoette responded with patience, "But you're about to fall asleep and I want you to be comfortable. We're here for you and Lio, remember?"

Galo’s gaze swung to Lio, who gave a nod of his head to show his approval. "Okay…." He relented and unbuckled his seat. "But no stealing my boyfriend." He reiterated, mulish and a bit childish in tone.

"I don't believe there's a thing in this world that could steal me from you, love,” Lio affirmed, a quiet warmth to his words.

"I will stay with Galo," Hideyoshi offered.

"Thank you, my love." Adoette beamed briefly at her husband in reply.

The larger male quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the car before opening the other side of the car to help Galo out of the vehicle, pulling an arm around his shoulders and guiding him into the apartment complex.

A little wave of uncertainty ran along Lio’s nerves as he and Adoette watched the two disappear into the building. He knew what he was feeling was stupid and unneeded, but Lio didn't like leaving Galo by himself when he was in such a vulnerable state.

His body language must have telegraphed his uneasiness. "Galo will be fine. He's with the best person that he can be with right now." Adoette said as she readied the car to rejoin the traffic flow.

That should have helped ease the uncertainty plaguing him, but Lio knew this feeling wouldn't truly go away until he was back with Galo. "I understand that, but forgive me for still having some worries over him." 

"That's understandable." Adoette kept her line of vision on the traffic. "I only say this because ever since Galo was a baby, Hideyoshi has been the one of the few people able to calm him down and keep him calm. Other than you, I believe."

Lio couldn't help his blush as Adoette continued. "Whenever he would get restless or needed to calm down from getting too excited, Hideyoshi or Amara would scoop him up and just hold him. It wouldn't take long for him to fall asleep after that."

An image of a much younger Galo with chubby cheeks and pent-up energy being settled by a hug made its way into Lio's mind, the cute imagery refusing to leave and causing a smile to creep onto his face. He shook his head to clear out the scene and refocus, ready to ask the question that was plaguing him when Adoette stopped him from going with Galo. "So why am I here with you?"

"Oh I just wanted to talk, that's all, and give you credit for standing up to my husband. I know most people can be put off by him." Adoette praised brightly.

Lio exhaled a sardonic chuckle through his nose. "Yeah, that's putting it very mildly."

Adoette responded with a bark of a laugh. "Believe me, he was a lot worse when we first met and that was an odd forty years back."

Thinking back to what Galo's brothers mentioned at the firehouse yesterday, Lio's curiosity pressed him to continue his line of questioning. "What did your sons mean by yesterday when they were talking about a family curse?"

This time, Adoette’s laugh was full and amused. "It's not really a curse as much as it's a really interesting coincidence. Basically, anyone bearing the Thymos last name is 'cursed,’" she lifted a hand off the steering wheel to use air quotes, "to meet the love of their lives through a very bad first impression."

Lio turned to Adoette with wide, disbelieving eyes. "You're not serious..."

Adoette didn't say a word as she pulled the car into an empty road next to a set of shops and personal lofts, the familiar brick and mortar buildings giving the area a friendly vibe. She placed the car in park but kept the engine running as she reached behind her seat to pull out the increasingly-familiar photo album and began to flip through the pages. "I didn't think it was true either when my father told me about it before I left for the military. It never occured to me that love at all would happen to me. I mean, I was the weird violent girl that was known to get into the roughest fights and come out on top. There was no guy that wanted to get near me, let alone date me, so I figured I was going to be alone in this world." She came to a stop at the very end of the book and handed it back to Lio.

What Lio saw made it hit home how much time truly did pass and somehow, some things stayed the same. 

The first pictures were of a younger Adoette and Hideyoshi. The signs of age Lio saw in the pair now were non-existent in the photos and in the color in their hair, a show of solid dark brown and black, but neither of them were smiling. In fact, the way the pictures were taken reminded Lio of the portraits they would use for arraignments and courts.

What also stood out to Lio were the number of cuts and bruises that dotted along each of their faces, and he had a feeling that there were more injuries that weren't on display. Adoette, her hair chopped short in a pixie cut, was giving her most deadly glare towards the camera with a cut lip, a dark red bruise blossoming around another cut along her cheekbone, and a forehead stained with red.

Lio was already familiar with Hideyoshi's glare but seeing it in its younger form sent a wave of shivers down Lio's spine. A fresh, red-blue bruise was stark over his eye, what looked like dried blood ran down his nose into his mustache, and signs of another bruise peeked out from under the high-collar of his dark shirt.

"When I first met Hideyoshi, we were at each other's throats. I didn't like the way he was 'teaching' his students and he didn't like me interfering with matters that didn't concern me. From there, it just snowballed into one big fight between us." Adoette answered with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "It took six people from our small unit to break up the fight and even then we didn't exactly see eye to eye for a while."

"So what happened to make all that change?" Lio questioned.

Wistfulness quirked her lips upward as she leaned her head back against the headrest. "A lot of bonding over different missions, a lot more arguing, a lot of working on our differences, and a lot of heart-to-heart talks." She looked over to Lio with deep, nostalgic content abundant in her eyes. "In the end, we have a happy life together, six beautiful and wonderful babies that have given us the blessing and gift to be called mom and dad, and almost everything we could have asked for in this life."

"Huh…." Lio hummed, letting all of the information circle in his head. "...Why almost?"

"It wouldn't be almost if I still had all of my babies." She answered, a small thread of sorrow creeping back into her voice as she lowered her head.

"Oh," Lio replied, feeling stupid after asking that. Of course, what wouldn’t any grieving parent give to have their lost child back? "I'm sorry."

Adoette shook her head. "It's been a long time since we lost Amara and Isamu, but thank you for sympathy." She reached into her bag to pull out her phone, tapping at the screen a few times before she leaned back against the headrest.

Silence fell down between them, but it wasn’t a silence thick with tension that begged to be broken. This was a comfortable silence between people that were content to simply be in each other's company.

A few minutes later, Lio was the first to break that silence. "So now what?"

"Now, we're waiting on the boys to get downstairs." Adoette lifted her phone to show Lio. "Just sent them a message that we're downstairs and they should be on their way down."

"I thought we were picking up stuff for tonight's dinner?" Lio asked, a little baffled that they made this stop first.

"Oh, we are." Adoette answered, "I already cooked up something when we came back last night. Hermos and Lucius are coming down with it."

"You didn't have to do that, really." Lio gently rebuked, thoroughly wary of abusing any privileges or taking advantage of any kindnesses.

"Sweetheart, we traveled all this way to finally see Galo and to meet the special people he's found in his life." She looked at him with all the motherly love she had. "You're not asking me to do anything, so let me do this for you two, okay?"

Lio couldn't help but let out a sigh, recognizing the signs of a losing battle but also warmed by the love behind it. It seemed that kindness within this family was not inherited, it was innate. "Very well. Thank you, Mrs. Adoette."

"You're very welcome, sweetheart.” she answered breezily, before reminding him with a tut, “And I mentioned before to call me Grandmama."

Silence returned for an easy moment between them until Lio asked, "So how common is this family 'curse'?"

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_When I lost hope_

_You were there to remind me_

_This is the start_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!


	8. At the Beginning with You

_We were strangers_

_On a crazy adventure_

_Never dreaming_

_How our dreams would come true_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

Galo’s mind came to awareness slowly as he rose from sleep. Pushing through the usual grogginess, he blinked his eyes open to see the familiar sight of his apartment ceiling. Noting the amber rays that danced along the dark grey of the paint, he turned to see the blinds were slightly open, but he also noticed that Hideyoshi had pulled up one of the bedroom chairs close to the bed to sit near him, his attention fully immersed in the small tattered book he was reading.

" _Jiji_..." he called out, voice raspy with the vestiges of sleep.

The elder Japanese man looked up to see his grandson awake from his nap. "How are you feeling, Galo?"

"I'm okay." Galo answered, clearing his throat a couple of times. As he moved to sit up against the pillows and the headboard, a glass of water was handed to him and he took it thankfully. The cool water was an instant relief for his dry throat. Draining the glass completely in one long draw, he handed it back to Hideyoshi. "How long was I out?"

"Not for very long. You were asleep for almost three hours." Hideyoshi replied, setting the glass back down on the nightstand and sitting back down in his seat, the back of the chair facing the window and making the shape of the chair and Hideyoshi cast a shadow onto the bed. "Grandmama and the others came back while you were sleeping and they commadered your kitchen."

"Ah, okay then." Galo let his body sink into the pillows, not wanting to get up just yet. He let his mind wander a bit, catching a few quiet minutes before he remembered something from during his talk with Dr. Ceelie. "Hey _Jiji_ , can I ask you something?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"Did mom or dad say anything about why my middle name is Myoujou?"

The elder's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. "Why do you ask?"

Galo could only shrug his shoulders a bit. "Just wondered why mine's different since the others all had a theme going on with their names, like Tomohiro, Hayato, Hideo, and Hikaru. I know Mine doesn't exactly count but still..."

Hideyoshi gave him a small, gentle smile as he turned to look out the window. The setting sun's rays highlighted the bright streaks in the dark amber of his eyes. "Before you or your brothers were born, your grandmother and I had come to the decision that any children that were gifted to us, they would never be left unaware of their heritage as we were and, as part of that remembrance, we would select names that would symbolize our hope and prayers for our children to grow into. Amara, your mother, wanted to carry on this tradition and she mentioned before that she wanted to use the name Haruto, but we had no prior knowledge of what she chose as a name when she was pregnant with you."

Hideyoshi looked back to Galo as he asked, "Did your mother ever get a chance to say that you were born early?"

"Uh, yeah. She and Dad explained that I came two months early. Said that I was too eager to come out into the world." Galo answered truthfully.

Hideyoshi let out a chuckle. "That is true. You were born early but the doctors couldn't find anything wrong other than you were perfectly healthy and your cries were so loud, we thought the windows would start shaking. At the time, the morning sun had just moved over the horizon and when the ray of light hit you and your mother, you stopped crying and began to smile. We all thought it was a miracle that a newborn would smile so early but your parents took it as a sign. That is why they chose Myoujou."

"Which means morning star in Japanese," Galo filled in.

"Yes," Hideyoshi answered, "Your parents loved you very deeply and they wanted to give you a name to symbolize the warmth and light you brought into our lives."

Galo drew his knees close to hug them, letting this sink in. He knew his parents loved him so very much, to the point that they sacrificed their lives to ensure he escaped their burning house that night.

Wait…they…sacrificed their lives for him…when did he remember that...?

All of sudden, it was like the linchpin keeping the memories at bay snapped, and more images rushed unbidden into his head. 

From the night of the fire. 

Waking up to smoke and ashes filling his room. His mom running into his room with a wet handkerchief to place over his mouth and nose, her face streaked with soot and hands covered in burns. His dad racing into the room to herd them out into the hallway and down the stairs, his glasses missing and a gash across his head bleeding sluggishly. The stairwell collapsing from fallen debris and smouldering wood. Not getting a chance to look back at his parents before they threw him over the gap and yelled at him to run. Dropping his mother's handkerchief as he raced with all his might out the door and out of the burning building, into the arms of Kray Foresight. Looking back at the burning building to see it collapse with his parents inside.

It wasn't until he heard his grandfather calling for him that he was brought back from the visions of the past in his mind. In his episode, he had curled in on himself and fallen to his side, his hands clutching at his head as tears streaked wet paths down his cheeks.

He felt himself gulping down gasps of air as he was lifted upright by someone else. Worried hazel eyes searched blue as they refocused. "Galo, what's wrong?!" Hideyoshi asked fervently, hurried.

Throat closing up and tears smudging the world into a blur of colors, Galo couldn’t answer. Galo felt his body collapse forward, clinging to his grandfather's embrace as Hideyoshi held Galo close. Tears continued to race down Galo's face in currents, his body wracked with sobs.

Galo continued to cry as he clung to Hideyoshi, but his sobs began to calm as he heard a familiar song, the soft bass of his _Jiji_ ’s voice gently weaving through the air.

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Suya suya to, Oyasuminasai (Sleep peacefully, good night)_

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Yasashi hito ni sodachimasu you ni (Let this child grow up to be a gentle person)_

_Kamisama arigatou (Thank you God)_

_Angel mou, arigatou (Thank you, Angels)_

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Papa no kokoro de oyasuminasai (Good night, sleep on Papa's heart)_

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Suya suya to, Oyasuminasai (Sleep peacefully, good night)_

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Yuruseru hito ni sodachimasu you ni (Let this child grow up to forgive others)_

_Kamisama arigatou (Thank you God)_

_Angel mou, arigatou (Thank you, Angels)_

_Nennen yo, Okorori yo (Time to sleep, Time to lie down)_

_Papa no kokoro de oyasuminasai (Good night, sleep on Papa's heart)_

With each passing verse, Galo's tears slowed to a stop. By the end of the song, the heavy weight of grief dissipated just as quickly as it washed over him.

Galo lifted his head back up to find his grandfather’s steady hazel eyes.

" _Daijoubou?"_ (Are you alright?)

" _Hai. Ore wa ha ni naru._ " (Yes. I will be.) Galo replied as he wiped away his tears, his voice still thick with emotion.

"Do you wish to speak about it?" Hideyoshi asked, concern setting his heavy voice even deeper.

Galo ducked his head as he nodded slowly. "I just... remembered that night." He gripped the blankets that were bunched around his waist hard. "When the fire killed Mom and Dad. I couldn't remember it before, but now..." Galo inhaled shakily as a few more droplets escaped his eyes, landing on his hands with the tiniest of sounds. " _Sore wa itai. Mada itai_." He whispered brokenly. (It hurts. It still hurts.)

Helplessness was not a foreign emotion to either Galo and Hideyoshi, but it didn't lessen the familiar pain that dwelt within their hearts. Gently, Hideyoshi placed a comforting hand on Galo's shoulder. "Losing the ones we love will always hurt. It is not pain that will go completely or swiftly. Some days, we fight and struggle against it when it comes back and threatens to swallow us whole, but as time goes on and our lives move forward, we must still remember all the times we did share with them, for that is how we keep them alive within us." Hideyoshi gave Galo’s shoulder a delicate squeeze, his voice firm as he spoke. "And know this, Myoujou. You are not alone in this. You have myself, your grandmother, your brothers, and your loved ones at Burning Rescue to help share the load of grief and give back the love and support you need in this life. Let us help keep your Burning Soul alight, _ne_?"

Galo was stunned. He followed his grandfather's words, doing his best to let each word sink in. He couldn't help but let out a chuckle as Hideyoshi used his own words against him. "Yeah. I will. Thanks _Jiji_ ," he answered softly, feeling as though some of the weight had been lifted from his shoulders. 

They shared a brief but very deep hug before Galo dropped back into the pillows that cushioned the headboard. "Hey _Jiji_?"

"Hmm?"

"Where did that lullaby come from? It sounded familiar." Galo questioned, a stray hand fixing his disheveled hair.

"I'd imagine so." Hideyoshi replied, "I used to sing it to you and your brothers when you all were much younger. It was a song my mother used quite frequently during my youth in Hokkaido."

Just before Galo could ask Hideyoshi anything further about Japan, a knock interrupted them, the door swinging open to reveal Lio and Adoette.

"Dinner's just about ready. Are you two ready to join us?" Adoette asked sweetly.

"We are, _Anata._ " Hideyoshi replied as he got off the bed.

Galo took a tentative sniff as a new aroma began to creep into the room. Another familiar smell and it smelled delicious. "That smells really good. What's for dinner?"

"Hot and sour soup with rice and chicken," Lio answered. "Your grandmother was teaching me about the different recipes we could use with the stock she made."

"Hell yeah! I'm down for soup." Galo eagerly shuffled out of bed, nearly tripping on the bundle of discarded blankets before Hideyoshi and Lio moved to catch him.

Adoette couldn't help but laugh as Galo and Lio bolted past her. Hideyoshi moved at a slower pace, opting to hug his wife close to him and placing a kiss into her chocolate hair, before they followed the boys into the kitchen area. 

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~ Next day ~_

"You boys made sure you got everything?"

"Got the keys, got the wallet, got the phone, got the tickets. We're good."

"It's not like we traveled with much to begin with."

"Although, I do recall we had to turn around on the account of _someone_ forgetting our tickets on the kitchen counter."

"Hey, that was one time. One time! And we were in high school."

"Boys…"

Galo laughed brightly as his brothers were scolded once again by his _Jiji_. Just hearing them bicker, (hell, just having other people to call _family_ ), was something Galo still had to get used to. 

The Promepolis airport terminal was surprisingly quiet for this time of day. Though considering it was around the time of lunch hour, it didn't come as too much of a surprise almost everyone was out getting food. Galo and Lio had both agreed the night before to accompany the Thymos-Red Snow Clan to the airport. Lio opted to be the one to take pictures so he could share them with the rest of Burning Rescue, who he kept in the loop with the constant updates about Galo and his family.

Galo moved to give Adoette the biggest hug possible. "You have no idea how much this has meant to me. I'm gonna miss you all."

"Oh honey." Adoette hugged him back with all the love she could. "Of course. Anytime you need us, we're just a phone call away."

"Though prior warning is greatly appreciated," Hideyoshi added as he clasped a hand onto Galo's shoulder, "Never be afraid to call us for anything at any time."

Galo looked at Hideyoshi as he pulled away from Adoette. "Thank you, _Jiji_." Galo gave Hideyoshi a firm hug, the elder man returning it just as much.

Lio paused in his picture-taking as Hermos and Lucius pulled Galo into what looked like a combination of a hug and headlock. He pulled his backpack off to grab the photo album to hand back to Adoette. "Thank you for lending this to us last night, Mrs. Adoette."

Adoette shook her head as she pushed the album back into Lio's hands. "Keep it. Enjoy them a little bit longer. I know you will bring it back when you and Galo decide to come visit us up north."

Lio could see the mischievous little gleam she held in her wisened eyes. "Oh…that's absolutely sneaky. This is your insurance that we have to come visit."

"I mean, you don't _have_ to, no one is forcing you boys." Adoette shrugged her shoulders with faux nonchalance before dropping it and looking Lio in the eyes. "Just know that our home is always open to you, Galo, and anyone else for any reason."

Lio's heart melted at the extended offer. "Thank you. We will come visit you sometime this year. Though we may bring some guests with us. I know Meis and Guiera have been dying to check out the safe haven that the Burnish used in the past."

"Of course. The more the merrier." Adoette replied happily, "And don't be afraid to reach out again if you need any help with the recipes." She didn't give him a chance to answer, quickly pulling Lio into a hug.

Lio couldn't help but bury his head into her shoulder as he returned the hug. The warmth and love she radiated easily, it reminded him of his own mother. Another stray thought wandered into his mind as he pulled away from the hug. "I actually have a favor to ask of you."

"Yes?" Adoette questioned with a curious tilt of her head.

"You mentioned last night that you have another son that's an investigator in the south." Lio recalled the different bits of conversation over dinner last night.

"Yes that's right. That's Horatio, our eldest." Adoette replied, "He works with the FBI in Texas. Is something the matter?"

"Not quite. I need yours, and his help in finding someone." He pulled out a slip of paper along with a photo showing a beautiful English woman with sunlit hair and magenta eyes, handing it to Adoette. "She's my mother. Her full name is Evelyn Charlotte Fotia, and her last place of residence would have been on the outskirts of Oxfordshire, England."

Adoette looked at the picture of the beautiful woman and then back to Lio. "I can't promise anything, but I know we'll do everything we can to help find your mother."

Lio let the breath he had been holding in his lungs. "Thank you."

Just then, the chime of the airport’s PA system echoed throughout the terminal. " **FIRST CALL FOR DEPARTURE FLIGHT TO O'HARE AIRPORT. FIRST CALL FOR DEPARTURE FLIGHT TO O'HARE AIRPORT. ALL PASSENGERS PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO YOUR ASSIGNED GATES.** "

"There's our cue," Hermos commented, pausing mid-motion in ruffling Galo's hair.

"Wait, why are you all going to O'Hare?" Galo asked as he cocked his head to the side.

"We have to get to O'Hare to make our connecting flights, bud," Lucius answered. "From there, Hermos flies back out to LA to meet up Creteus and Timaeus, while Mom, Dad, and I head back to Whitefish."

"Oh." Galo visibly deflated, not ready to say goodbye yet. "I didn't expect it to be this quick."

"Oh, honey." Adoette moved to wrap Galo in her arms again. "This isn't a good-bye. It's a see you later, remember?"

Galo shook his head in a nod. That's right, he will see them again. Even if it's through the screen of their phones and computers, he will see them again. "Okay. I love you Grandmama." He said with a smile, swiping away a stray tear that slipped down his cheek.

"I love you too, Galo." She reciprocated, tears gathering in her eyes as well. "Until next time."

"Until next time." Galo echoed back. 

Just as he broke the hug from Adoette so that Lio could say his farewells, he hugged Hideyoshi again who reciprocated the warm action. When they broke away, Hideyoshi turned his attention back to Lio. Both gave each other equally hard stares, neither one backing down until Hideyoshi offered his hand to the blonde. "Take care of our Myoujou. He means the world to us."

Lio smirked at the challenge in the elder's tone. "Of course. He means the world to me too." He took Hideyoshi's hand in a firm handshake before they broke off.

As Hideyoshi and Adoette began to walk ahead of them toward the gate, Hermos broke the air with a long, low whistle. "Okay, _now_ I'm impressed. ' _Tousan_ actually likes someone's partner."

"Huh?" Galo turned in to him in shock. "What d'you mean by that?"

"Well, the last time someone brought their boyfriend home, Dad more or less threatened him with his katana and wakizashi." Lucius filled in. "Though to be fair, the guy totally deserved it. He bullied Timaeus for the better part of his freshman year 'til Timaeus took a whack at his head with his textbook. Quite literally knocked some sense into him."

"Yeah, and right into a row of lockers too." Hermos said as he snuck an arm around Galo one more time into a side hug. "You take care of yourself, okay pup? I'm gonna be expecting to see your face on our weekly video calls."

"I gotcha bro." Galo answered as another body glomped onto him.

"And keep us up to date if that fucker Foresight ever gets his day in court. We still owe him quite a deal of retribution." Lucius smirked, an evil gleam entering his amber eyes.

"I will! I will!" Galo repeated as he hugged his arms around his brothers one more time. "Grandmama and Jiji are gonna leave you two behind if you two don’t get a move on.”

Lucius and Hermos removed themselves from Galo to chase down their parents as they turned around a corner, and Adoette waved at them one more time before the family disappeared from sight.

Lio looked up at Galo as he dropped his wave, seeing his smile falter as it was chased by a few tears. He wove his small hand into Galo’s, speaking to him in a low, comforting tone, “Hey, it’s going to be alright. We’ll see them again.”

Galo’s smile grew a bit more cheerful as he gave Lio a nod. “I know we will. I honestly couldn’t be more happy than I am right now.”

“Oh?” Lio asked, intrigued. “How so?”

Galo gently pulled on Lio’s hand to enclose him in a tight but tender hold. “Cuz I feel like I’m standing at a new beginning and I can’t imagine it with anyone else but you.”

Lio felt absolute love and warmth within his grasp. “Funny, I couldn’t agree more.” Lio murmured as he turned to snuggle further into his love’s arms.

They both held onto each other a bit longer, not wanting to break their embrace quite yet, but knew they had to get a move on as the terminal chimed its next announcement.

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

The airplane took off with a seamless glide into the skies above. Its passengers settled into their flight routine of in-flight naps, tending to offline work, or entertaining themselves with their mobile devices.

Adoette had pulled out another, smaller album from her bag. This time, she was looking at a single picture of Galo as a baby boy with crazy, spiked blue hair laughing as he took his first steps. Adjacent to its neighboring twin, another picture showed Galo in the middle of hugging her and Hideyoshi, with Lio pulled in with the front of the group. His face was frozen in a mix of confusion and startlement.

She didn’t feel a tear roll down her cheek until Hideyoshi gently wiped it away. “ _Anata_ , are you alright?”

Adoette let out a calming breath as she hugged the album close to her chest. “I am now, Hideyoshi.” She looked to him with eyes shining with mist and elation. “We have our baby boy back, my love!” She exclaimed, “We have Galo back and he has a family and a sweetheart of his own!”

Hideyoshi gave a smile that matched his wife, pushing away the armrest that lay between them so he could gather his wife close to him. Basking in their shared warmth, he nuzzled into her hair as she snuggled close to him.

A piece of their hearts will always be missed, but in its place, the found spark of two flames served as a balm like no other. 

_~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*_

_Life is a road and I wanna keep going,_

_Love is a river I wanna keep flowing,_

_In the end, I wanna be standing_

_At the beginning with you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's done!! I had so much fun (and hurt! I had to stop several times writing some of these scenes cuz they just hurt! T-T) writing this.
> 
> This is not the last of this series! I have so many plans in store for the Thymos-Red Snow Clan. Such as the backstory of Adoette and Hideyoshi Thymos-Red Snow. Also in store would be Lio's own reunion.
> 
> So stay tuned!!
> 
> The song Hideyoshi used was [Sleeping Forest by Yoko Takahashi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOZuhRLH_Nc). The words were tweaked a bit to fit the scene, but the overall lullaby is very beautiful.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and Comments are much appreciative! 
> 
> Come yell at me [@Loupwarrior9](https://twitter.com/Loupwarrior9?s=09) on Twitter or here too!  
> 


End file.
